Not in the Shadow
by Very happy randomness fairy
Summary: Neji just kept to himself, when would people understand that he didn't want them near him? Tenten stayed silent and watched him. Slowly, without realizing it, she pulled him out of the shadow and made him open up for her. // A story about team Gai!
1. Chap 1 The Prodigy and The Hard Worker

**A/N:** So I've been away from school since friday, and this little idea just wouldn't stop popping up in my mind. So don't worry, I won't stop updating my other story "Never Leaving", I can handle two stories!

So this is supposedly the story about Team Gai, but mainly it is a love story between Neji and Tenten. Right now it is kind of one sided, but Neji will come along sooner or later. Also, I am very used to write in first person right now, so when I decided to write this in third person I had no idea it would give me such a hard time getting it right, so forgive me if there are any stupid mistakes ; ) read, and tell me what you think okay?

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the naruto series. _

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**NOT IN THE SHADOW**

Konoha, a huge village in the fire country that contains so many people, with so many different stories to tell. Some are more interesting than others, and some are left in the shadows of the greater ones.

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**Chapter 1. Prodigy**

Neji Hyuuga is a boy, born into the branch family of the great Hyuuga clan's family system. Bitter isn't a dark enough word to explain the feelings that's been filling the young boy 's head ever since his father was killed. He never learnt the whole truth about what happened, but small details and clues had left him blaming his father's twin brother Hiashi, the Hyuuga clan's head leader, for his father's death.

So when Neji was thirteen, the shadow inside him had completely swallowed his childhood, and given him a cold and stoic face to show the world. The teachers at the Academy had entitled him a prodigy and had made sure Hiashi had known, but no matter how much the uncle tried to be kind and encouraging to Neji, he wouldn't get through Neji's thick walls, and his own pride.

The sun was climbing up, claiming its position on the blue sky. It was 6 am and Neji was already out of the Hyuuga Mansion, busy trying to perfect his own techniques. He had gone to the training grounds. He wasn't really allowed to go there yet, they were reserved for those who had graduated as at least a genin, so they could train, but the training they did on the Academy wasn't enough for the prodigy.

He knew that he was destined for something big. Maybe to prove for the main branch that he could be just as strong, not matter the power behind the mark on his forehead. Maybe he was supposed to avenge his father, only time would tell. But no matter what happened he wouldn't let himself give in to the curse mark, he was too strong for that.

The time was nearing 08.00 and he had to go to school. A little unwilling, he threw his backpack onto his back and started walking down towards the streets again with his hands heavily shoved into his pockets.

People tried to hide it, but Neji could see how everyone just had to glance at him as he walked past them. Curiosity and pity filled in their eyes. Pity he had never asked for. He sighed with annoyance and picked up his pace slightly. He reached the school just in time, and dumped down on his seat, middle row, by the window. A bored expression filled his face instantly and instead of paying attention as the teacher started the class he turned off his mind completely and lay his eyes on the school yard outside instead.

Twenty minutes after the class had started someone finally caught his attention. The teacher kept on talking about techniques he already knew, but outside, a blonde boy was running over the schoolyard. It was obvious that the kid was late for class. Neji recognized him as the noisy outsider from the year under. He didn't know what his name was, but he knew that he was an orphan, and that most of the village didn't like him. For a few brief seconds Neji thought about how horrible it must be to be that boy, disliked by everyone and obviously not meant for anything big. Just another failiure.

Next class was another boring, uneventful lecture. When there were only five minutes left the teacher wanted us to come down by the blackboard and do an easy transformation jutsu, as a preparation for the upcoming graduation tests. All the students suddenly tensed up with fear of failing, but Neji remained calm and unaffected. He had mastered that technique long ago.

As the first student was called down, all the other kids in the room started going through the hand signs one last time, desperately trying to remember how it was done. Neji rolled his eyes at them. Why hadn't they just practiced at home? That way they wouldn't have ended up in such a situation now. Three more students survived the transformation, and they had all succeeded in transforming into a copy of the teacher.

"Neji Hyuuga," the teacher called, and motioned for him to come down. Neji stepped down, and turned towards the class. The entire class was silent, and _no one_ did anything except paying attention to the genius in front of them. Neji did the hand signs without blinking and reappeared as a perfect copy of the teacher by his side.

He changed back into himself and made his way up to his seat again without looking at anyone. He could tell how much some of them wanted him to pay attention to them, and he was tired of it. Tired of people always paying more attention to him than anyone else, why did _he _have to be in that damned spotlight of theirs? He was the least social guy in class! And he knew it, and that's how he wanted to be, but somehow some of the females in his class had decided that he was a good thing to stare at and whisper about and… it all just made him crazy. Couldn't they see that he wanted to be left alone?

He sat down with a annoyed sigh and focused all his attention to the school yard outside again. His head jerked back towards the blackboard when everyone started snickering and whispering to each other. It was the class's head failure, Rock Lee. The guy wasn't good for anything, it seemed. He was a fast runner, and a quick learner in Tai Jutsu, but other than that he was just a loser that wouldn't admit that he didn't belong on this school.

With a sorrowful look on his face he dumped back on his seat on the front row. Neji watched him sink lower and lower into his seat as the people besides him gave him looks and kept whispering things to each other. Neji didn't approve of such childish behavior, even though he did agree with them at some point.

Finally, after just a few more transformations the class ended, and Neji could escape the people on his school that were constantly trying to gain contact with him. He walked out of the main entrance and jumped a few elegant jumps and sat down on the school roof. A group of five girls from class started whispering and grinning again. Neji rolled his eyes and moved to the center of the roof to get some privacy.

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**Hard worker**

She secretly watched him as he climbed up and disappeared. What else could she do? All the other girls did the same. She looked at the four girls she was standing with, they all stared dreamingly after him as he moved away from their sight.

"Isn't he just… perfect?" One of them muttered, shifting her eyes back on the girls she was standing with. Her name was Ayo. She ahd black hair and extremely blue eyes, making her very pretty. She and Ayo had been friends since the first year in the Academy, and they were pretty much best friends.

"He's _so_ cool," another cooed and grinned. Soon all four of them stood there exchanging gossip about the prodigy, getting more and more excited by each passing minute. Tenten remained silent. She remained with her thoughts, blocking their loud voices out.

She felt like something was pulling at her heart every time she saw him. Like something was telling her to look at him, urging her to move over and talk to him, but she couldn't. How stupid would it look? She, a random girl in his class, approaching him out of no where, just because he made her feel funny inside? No, that was something she had to resist.

"Tenten?" Ayo broke through her thoughts, and made her jerk back to reality.

"Wha… yeah?" She acted innocent, they would never know that she was thinking about Neji too.

"You're so quiet. Everything alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she smiled at them, mostly at Ayo, though.

Ayo was the only one that didn't settle with that. Tenten noticed how she watched her a little from the corner of her eye and tried to act as natural as possible.

She had told Ayo that she liked Neji, but what difference did that make? Almost all the girls in class liked Neji. There was tons of different reasons to why. The most hollow ones said it was mainly his over-sexy body, while others blamed the mysterious personality and how he seemed to be able to do everything. He always had an answer to anything, and he had master every single technique we had ever learned while being in the Academy.

Tenten however didn't know exactly what it was that attracted her so much to him. She admired his many talents, she was fascinated by his special eyes, and his personality _did_ make her a little curios to find out who he really was. … Yes, he had a pretty nice body too, but that wasn't the _main_ reason for her admiring.

When class started after lunch Tenten sat down besides Ayo on the back row by the window. Ayo got the window seat, as usual. Tenten sat down besides her and directed my eyes on the black board, kind of.

The teacher entered the classroom, and every one settled down, and turned their heads towards him. He was a tall slim man, with brown spiky hair, pointing out from every direction above his head band. He sat down by his desk and started talking…

Tenten paid a lot of attention in class. She took notes in her note book, and memorized all the things the teacher said, still some info always managed to slip her mind. She supported her hard working head in her palm, her elbow on the desk, as she concentrated on the teacher.

She allowed herself on innocent glance towards the row where Neji sat. He didn't pay attention as normal, just stared out of the window. She wondered what he was thinking about. Seconds past and the teacher kept talking, but Tenten had lost herself, looking at the mysterious boy. Right now it was okay, cause he had his back turned towards her, and she couldn't see his face, but if he turned around and faced her, her heart would beat like crazy and that weird feeling in her belly would return, and she didn't welcome that feeling. She never wanted to be like all the other girls in the class, chasing after him like some crazy fan girl. No, she told herself that if this stupid crush didn't end, she would not sink to their level, she would admirer him in secret and from a safe distance so he wouldn't think she was like them.

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**A/N**: I'm not sure if I'm completely happy with this myself, please tell me your opinion. Should this continue or not?


	2. Chap 2 The Nightmare and The Dream

**A/N: **I'm still ill, and can't go to school, so I used the time to write another chapter. Tell me what you think, please ^^

Oh, and yeah, sorry if there are any spelling errors or mistakes here.

_Disclamier: Don't own naruto stuff. _

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**Chapter 2. Nightmare**

Neji woke up with tense muscles and a slight hint of sweat across his forehead. Another nightmare involving his father and the curse mark he was bearing. He stared up at the white ceiling, struggling to get a grip of himself. Slowly his heart beat calmed down, and he felt like he was ready to get up.

The halls in the branch family's house was quiet in the morning, Neji being the only one that needed to be up before 6 am to train by himself. He walked as silent as possible, not very hard for him. He entered the kitchen and made himself some boring breakfast, ate, and hurried out of the mansion and walked up towards the training grounds.

The time closed in on 08.00 again, and Neji had to give up his training for now and go join the others in class. He put his hands in his pockets and walked towards the village. Once again he rolled his eyes as he pushed through the curious crowds in the streets. Their eyes on him didn't make him feel weak – they made him feel stronger… strengthened by irritation.

The school yard was filled with people, waiting for the bell to ring so they could go inside. The sun was, like always, shining over them, giving most people a good start on the day, while others, like Neji completely ignored the weather. There was no way he would ever experience a good start on the day with all those nightmares anyway. As he crossed the school yard he decided that he hated dreaming. When he was dreaming he lost control over his mind, and it shoved him things he didn't want, things that made him feel weak… And scared – which was not acceptable!

"Hi, Neji," three girls cooed as he walked past them. They all had that stupid look on their faces, like seeing him before them was the best thing that could happen to them.

"Hn," Neji muttered, just before the bell rang, and he could get inside. He was always right on time. Waiting in the school yard with all those weird girls and cocky boys was nothing he desired.

He dumped down in his normal seat and put his head in his palm as usual. He watched the school yard as always, and kept his eyes there completely ignoring the other kids in the class as they entered the classroom and greeted each other. He figured that if anyone was optimistic enough to try and greet him they might as well deserve to be disappointed.

The teacher entered the classroom and started the same old lecture. Neji sighed as he realized that this would be yet another repetition of something he had mastered and memorized months ago.

The sound of pencils against paper sliced through his thoughts, and made it hard to ignore what was going on around him. He started daydreaming of the day he would be placed on a three man squad, and he would be free from all these stupid, and meaningless classes. He would only have to put up with two other students, he could handle that. It wouldn't be too much torture, he told himself.

The day went by like all the other days. Finally in last class there was some changes. The teacher told all the students to meet in the gym, for a final lecture in weapons and such. The teacher told them to use their kunai's and try to hit bulls eye at first shot, so he could judge our aim.

"Nothing say's more than the first attempt to hit bulls eye," he said, as he signaled for the first student – a boy, to throw his first kunai. Neji noticed how the kunai missed the bulls eye three inches. "Good," the teacher muttered, and wrote something down on his papers. Then he moved over to next student and watched him throw. "In battle, you only get one chance on hitting the target, and you have to hit him in the right place. A good aim is required if you wanna be a ninja."

Neji didn't pay much attention, he only watched where the kunai's hit. Not many did hit right in the bull's eye, most of them were a few inches off. The teacher finally reached Neji, and he could throw the stupid kunai and get it over with. It hit right in the middle. Not an inch to the right or left, it was dead on. _Perfect_.

"Great, Neji," the teacher said, and smiled at the silent boy.

Inside, Neji smiled satisfied by his result, but when he looked up and saw the sparkling admiring in the eyes to the girl next to him, the satisfaction was replaced by annoyance in a heartbeat.

The boy that stood on Neji's other side was not less annoying. He was dead silent and glared at Neji's kunai, which still stood neatly planted in the bulls eye of the target board five meters away. Neji glanced at the kunai, and back at the annoyed boy. It was obvious that the guy was extremely jealous of Neji's skills.

"Tenten, _not _that forceful! How many times do I have to tell you not to break our target boards?" The teacher scolded, but there was a hint of pride and admiring in his tone… and in the smile he was trying to cover up.

Neji looked to the left and spotted the girl the teacher was talking too. His eyebrows went high up. _That _little girl? Then he moved his eyes over to the target board, and he almost couldn't believe what he saw. Her kunai had hit bulls eye, alright, and gone so deep into the wood that the board almost was split in two!

He looked back at the girl, and looked her up and down. She was too tiny… not short, but kind of to petit. The teacher lifted up her arm and began squeezing it teasingly.

"I can't see them, but there obviously are some pretty hard core muscles in here," he exclaimed and laughed. The girl smiled back, obviously pleased with the attention, this was clearly her area.

Neji looked away when she looked up and met his eyes. He wasn't really interested in any eye contact.

**Dream**

Once again the teacher lingered by Tenten's side during weapon class. He stood there and wanted to be mad at her, but knowing he was her teacher and probably was the one that had taught her everything she knew about aiming and kunai throwing, he couldn't help but to feel proud.

Tenten didn't mind. These classes seemed to be the only classes where she could outshine the others. Not even Neji could beat her at this game, she thought to herself. As the teacher picked up her arm and began joking about her tiny, but powerful muscles; she looked up, and found _his_ pearly eyes set on her. She felt like her heart was pulled down into her belly, and instantly froze on the spot. She couldn't hear the teacher anymore, she could only focus on the boy, standing only four students away from her.

He looked away immediately and she never got the chance to read his face. As the teacher moved on to next girl on the row, all Tenten could do was to think about that second their eyes had met. What had he been thinking? Was he impressed too? Or did he just think she was annoying?

After school that day; Tenten and Ayo crossed the school yard, ready to head home. All the other students were doing the same, so the school gate got pretty crowded and it took some time to get through.

"So I wanted to ask you something," Ayo began, and smirked an evil little smirk towards Tenten. "Do you like Neji?"

Tenten nearly threw herself at her to shut her up. Ayo had some seriously timing issues. Blurting out something like that when they were surrounded by people that could and certainly _would _hear her.

"Shush!" Tenten hushed her and got closer so she wouldn't have to talk so loud. "_Everybody_ likes him."

"Not _everybody_. A lot of the boys in class don't like him." She pointed out, shrugging her shoulders?

"That's because all the girls in class likes him."

"Including you?"

"I'm not like those fan girls!" Tenten hissed and made a face. Ayo raised her brows, and laughed a little.

"No, 'cause you don't just like him – you are in love with him!" She exclaimed and grinned excitedly at Tenten, who only looked more terrified than ever.

"Keep it down, will you!?" She hissed again, looking around to see if anyone had heard what her. They both pushed through the school gate, and walked down the street – the same route as always.

"Well?" Ayo urged, and grinned at Tenten. Tenten rolled her eyes, and gave her the look, but it didn't have any affection. "Come on, tell me!"

"Fine! Yeah, I like him," Tenten admitted with a silent voice, and lowered her head defeated. Ayo laughed triumphantly and clapped her hands together.

"I knew it! I've seen how you look at him!" She exclaimed and hugged Tenten tightly, before she started humming a merry tone to herself.

"Why's it such a big deal anyway?" Tenten asked, and tried to hide the curiosity in her voice.

"Because, you are different," she said and calmed down, so she could explain better. "It's like the unhappy prince that can't find anyone that'll see past his royalty and love him for who he is, but suddenly a girl shows up, and she is completely different from all the other girls!"

Tenten was silent for a while. Ayo grinned at her, waiting eagerly for her upcoming response.

"He doesn't even know who I am," Tenten muttered at last and stuck her tongue out at her friend.

"That's what we gotta make sure he finds out!" Ayo would not give it up. "Maybe you'll end up in the same squad as him!" She suggested, and jumped a little up and down.

Tenten couldn't help but to admirer her enthusiasm, but she didn't dare to hope for anything to happen between her and the prodigy. That would be like a dream. Him just saying "hi" to her would be a dream, it was that kind of stuff that didn't happen in real life.

"That's not likely," Tenten said and smiled at Ayo, trying to hide that the thought made her sad. For now, Neji Hyuuga would have to remain a dream for her, a very good one.

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**A/N: **So I'm dying to hear what you think about this! : D


	3. Chapter 3 The Pessimist and The Optimist

**A/N:** One thing I'd like to point out before I get to the point... I think "High School" should have been its own genere here at . I mean how many percent of all the stories here are about the naruto charachters in high school?I don't know, but it is a whole lot! And same goes for any other anime or game or whatever, high school fics are _everywhere!_ And sometimes, they're pretty good too... _sometimes._ I'm not easily impressed anymore I have to admit.

Anyway, Neji is a pessimist in the way of never believeing in anyone except himself, just so that is clear. Also I'd like to thank for all the reviews. I have to say this story is way more popular al ready than "never leaving" was at this point. It just warms my heart :3

_Disclaimer: _I_ don't own anything from the Naruto series. _

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**Chapter 3. The Pessimist **

Neji left the training field 08:47, and walked through the same nosy streets as always. He was glad it was Friday, he could use the weekend to do some serious training, and didn't have to waste so many hours in school. Two day's of freedom to train as he wanted.

As always he walked through the crowds in the school yard and reached the door the same second as the bell rang. He ignored all the hopeful people that tried to greet him, and dumped down on his regular seat, and turned his eyes to the window.

"Is it okay if I sit next to you?" A girl's voice asked from his right side. Neji didn't even bother to look at her.

"Do what you want," he mumbled. The blonde girl sat down, and looked at him with admiring eyes, feeling her insides tremble with excitement. Everyone could see that she was thrilled to sit next to the genius; but Neji didn't care.

That blonde boy from the year under was late again, and ran over the school yard, holding his pants up with his hands as he ran. Neji rolled his eyes as the boy tripped over his own feet and crashed to the ground. There was no point in even trying for people like that, Neji thought to himself and sighed with annoyance. Why couldn't people see that?

The teacher entered the class and started talking and writing on the black board, Neji did actually look at him, but didn't take in anything of what he said. Once again he was rambling through something Neji already had mastered.

When class finally ended; Neji was the last to rise from his seat. He made his way down between the rows and was about to exit the classroom when the teacher called his name.

"Neji, could you wait a minute please?" he said calmly, and flicked through some of his papers. Neji stayed silent but turned around to face the teacher anyway. "Come here," the teacher said with a frown as the student stayed by the door. Neji sighed and walked over to the wide black board.

"What?" he muttered.

"I hope you are aware of how pleased I am with your progress, but I have noticed that you don't pay much attention in class, and you never say anything either," he said and sat down on his desk, leaning back on his hands.

"So?" Neji muttered, raising his brows.

"I'll get straight to the point," the teacher said, realizing that it was hopeless to ask him to pay attention in class. "Some of the others in class are having some difficulties in some areas, and I was wondering if you might be interested in helping them out a little, since you, literarily have mastered… everything," he said and smiled encouragingly at his best student. Neji was silent for a few seconds before he answered.

"Do you seriously think I want to waste my time on those failures?" Neji asked harshly, not believing what his teacher was asking of him.

"Neji…" the teacher was about to scold him for saying such a thing, but Neji had already disappeared out of the door to spend the recess up on the roof. His teacher was left in silence, wondering if that boy ever would soften.

The rest of the school day went by painfully slow for Neji, but finally it was over. He was on his way towards the wide doors, when a shy voice from behind him called out his name.

"Eh, Neji?" he turned around with raised brows wondering mainly why he bothered to stop at all.

"What?" he almost spat as he saw the blonde girl, who had been sitting next to him all day standing there with her hands behind her back. He suspected her for trying to look cute, but it didn't work, he wasn't affected by her looks at all.

"Well, I was just wondering, eh…" she mumbled, lifting her hand to bite her thumb nervously. Neji rolled his eyes impatiently, and shifted his weight. "The graduation tests are coming up and… ah, well," she averted her eyes from him, obviously having difficulties to talk, not because she was a shy person, but because she was talking to _him_. Neji mentally groaned in annoyance, and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not going to help you train or anything. Fate will decide whether you pass or not, not my help," he said monotonously. He took one second to take in the shocked and hurt expression on the girl's face before he turned around and hurried out of the door.

**The Optimist **

After school Tenten, Ayo and some of the other girls from their class lingered in the school yard before the weekend. They all participated in the weekly gossip, even Tenten managed to let go of her crush, and laugh with her friends. She didn't have a lot of things to say, other than follow up questions and some short comments about the other girls' stories, but that was enough.

When the door to the main entrance of the school smacked shut, all the girls turned to see who was coming out, and fell dead silent when Neji Hyuuga strode out, his head high and his hands in his pockets as always. He quickly and emotionlessly walked past them and completely ignored their high pitched goodbye's.

Tenten bowed her head, afraid he might think of her as one of them. She discreetly looked to the other side and pretended to push back some of her bangs with her hand to cover her face. She waited to she was completely sure he couldn't see her anymore before she finally lifted her head to look at her friends again. They were all gazing after the prodigy as he left through the school gates.

"He so… wow," one of them muttered, kind of moaning the last part. The other girls, especially Ayo, agreed dreamily, still looking in the direction of the disappearing genius.

Tenten sighed, and looked in a completely other direction, trying hard to forget about the boy, but when the other girls started talking about Neji, she couldn't take it anymore.

"Oh, I forgot… I've gotta go get my weapons in the gym," she said, hurriedly, before Ayo could point out that she didn't bring her weapons to school today. Tenten could feel their eyes on her back as she half ran through the main entrance and disappeared around the first corner.

She followed the white halls until she reached a final door. She opened it carefully and peered inside to check if anyone was still in there. There was someone there… A boy. Tenten immediately recognized him as Rock Lee from her class and fully entered the room. He was training his aim. He was throwing kunai after kunai at a heavily wounded target board with a focused, but a little frustrated look on his face. Tenten crossed the wide room, heading towards him.

"Hi, Lee," she greeted and lifted her hand in an unnecessary gesture. Lee froze and looked over his shoulder. His face lit up a little when he saw Tenten moving towards him.

"Hey, Tenten!" He said, louder than Tenten, but she didn't mind.

"How's your training going?" She asked with a smile and glanced over at the heavily pierced target board. Kunai's lay scattered on the ground around it, and some were planted on the board, but still none in the bulls eye.

"My aim is a little weak, I need to train my eye!" he said, again loudly. The big room gave his voice a slight echo. Tenten frowned a little and wondered what he did wrong – hitting the middle wasn't that hard.

"Let me see then, maybe I can give you some advice," she said and grinned at him, folding her hands cutely behind her back. Lee grinned back at her and, picked up a new kunai from the ground besides him and threw it. It hit two rings outside the bulls eye, and Tenten knew right away what might help him.

"You know if you hold the kunai a little less firmly it's a whole lot easier to steer it with your hand," she said and picked up one to demonstrate. Lee tried a lot of times, and Tenten stayed to help, and correct him until he finally hit the middle. Tenten had to back away as he threw his hands up over his head and leaped to the air in excitement.

"Tenten! Did you see that! Right there! I did it!" he almost shouted and pulled her into a huge hug, almost crushing her ribs. He even had to walk over to the target board to exanimate the kunai.

"That was great, Lee!" Tenten encouraged, grinning at the weird boy. "But you still need to practice. It's not enough to do it once, you know!" she lectured and felt smart.

Lee nodded his head with a huge movement, it looked a little painful but he couldn't help it. He was so happy to finally have hit the bulls eye that he was overfilled with energy. Tenten mentally noted that he was acting like a child on Christmas eve as he started doing some kind of a dance by the target board, muttering "I did it, I did it," over and over again with a huge grin on his face.

"Hey, Tenten!" Ayo's voice yelled, from the other side of the gym, making Lee stop his dance immediately. "You didn't even bring any weapons today! What're you doing?" she demanded, leaning on the doorframe, with a impatient look on her pretty face.

"Sorry, I forgot," Tenten said and put on an innocent face as she waved goodbye to Lee.

"Bye, Tenten! Thanks for your help!" Lee shouted after her. She only had time to send him a smile before Ayo dragged her out of the gym and out into the now empty school yard.

"What were you doing with _him_?" Ayo asked, raising her brows.

"He was training his aim, and since I'm pretty good at that stuff I helped him out a little," Tenten explained.

"Agh, how can you put up with him, he's so loud and annoying," Ayo muttered and eyed Tenten questioningly.

"He's not that bad," Tenten defended him. She didn't like how everyone was treating him. Okay, he wasn't really good at anything, but he was a nice person… just a little weird and loud sometimes, but there was nothing wrong with that!

"I just can't see him as a ninja," Ayo kept on, and stared right ahead. She was always fully aware that talking about people behind their backs was cruel, but she just couldn't help it. Tenten sighed. She couldn't picture him as a ninja either; sometimes it seemed like he couldn't do anything at all, and nobody would want to hire a ninja like that. It was so sad, because Lee was a hard worker. He was probably the one that worked hardest out of everyone in their class, and everyone knew that, but still he only failed.

"Do you think he's gonna pass the graduation tests?" Ayo asked in a silent gossip-voice. Tenten's jaw tightened annoyed.

"Well, he is trying really hard and – "

"He can't even use ninjutsu, Tenten," Ayo pointed out, and started walking sideways so she could face her best friend. "I just don't get why he can't see it himself?"

"See what?" Tenten asked, and fought a glare.

"That there's no point in trying, he's a failure," she said and shrugged her shoulders. Tenten kept silent. One part of her did actually agree, but she knew how to shut that part up, another part didn't want to believe it and still had some faith in Lee. She really didn't want to talk bad about such a hard working boy. It seemed like he never gave up, no matter how hopeless it must seem.

"He's completely different from us! We're going to be the best ninja's this world has ever seen!" She said loudly and threw her arm around Tenten's shoulders. The brunette couldn't help but smile. "So what are you going to do today?" Ayo asked with a smile, and obviously wanted them to do something together.

"First I'm going home to eat! I'm starving," Tenten said, and rubbed her belly to make her point.

"Sounds like a plan, okay if I join you?" she asked, and took her arm back from around Tenten's shoulders.

"Of course," Tenten said. Her parents never minded Ayo coming over, the girl nearly lived there anyways.

So they headed towards Tenten's house, deep in discussion about what they were going to eat.

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**A/N:** well I hope this pleased you all. As usuall I'd be so happyto hear what you think, so yeah... reviews are welcome! :D (sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes)


	4. Chap 4 The Front Line and The Sideline

**A/N:** This chapter started out as a cute idea, but I'm not sure if I've managed to get it right. Please tell me what you think, 'cause I might redo it if you guys are not pleased with this. Just tell me whatever you think, okay? : D If it's crap I will rewrite it!

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**Chapter 4. The Front Line**

The weekend had passed too quickly for Neji, and he once again found himself in his regular seat in the classroom. He knew that a monstrous glare was plastered to his face, but he couldn't find the strength to hide it. He was sick of the same routine day after day. He wanted to be out on missions, he wanted to be older and stronger so he could gain the respect he wanted from his uncle and the elders of the Hyuuga clan. But he couldn't. He was trapped in fate, he told himself. The mark under the bandages around his head was proof of that. People had asked why he always wore those bandages, he never answered.

Neji walked down an empty corridor, on his way out of the school building. He intended to eat his lunch on the roof or in a tall tree behind the school. It didn't really matter where as long as he could get a break from all the hallow minds that surrounded him in the classroom.

He rounded a corner and slowed his pace slightly. Far away in the end of the next corridor he spotted two girls from his class. One second he considered to turn and take another route, desperate to avoid social contact, but realized that if he couldn't let himself be affected by two girls.

As he walked closer he recognized them. One of them was named Ayo, she sat on a wide desk, positioned by the wall under a window. The brunette was Tenten, the girl that had broken the target board in weapon class the other day.

Neji spotted the deep red blood that was dripping from Ayo's hand. Tenten was clumsily trying to bandage it, and Neji could see, even from a distance, that she was doing it wrong.

"Ow! Tenten! That hurts!" Ayo whined, and Neji was already annoyed by the high volume of her voice. He silently wondered why girl's always felt the need to be so loud.

"I'm sorry, I really suck at bandaging hands," Tenten apologized, and tried once more. "The bandage is getting all bloody too."

As Neji approached them they both fell silent. Ayo stared at him, and grinned stupidly, while Tenten turned her head away, avoiding eye contact. Neji caught himself wondering why.

"What happened to you?" He asked before he could stop himself.

For a second they both just gaped at him, probably trying to proceed the shock of having him talking to them at his own initiative. Since it was mainly Ayo he had directed the question to, Tenten was the first to recover.

"She cut herself on one of my kunai," she said. Neji noticed that her voice was sounding a little shaky. He lifted his eyebrows wondering what kind of ninja would cut herself on a kunai.

"You're doing it wrong," he said, and took Ayo's hand in his. He snatched the bandages out of Tenten's hand, and skillfully began rolling the white fabric around the bloody cut. As he dropped her small hand he noticed that the black haired girl wasn't breathing. He stared at her for a few seconds, mentally questioning her sanity.

"Breathe," he said shortly. Finally she opened her mouth and started panting to catch her breath. Neji rolled his eyes, and turned to leave.

"Thank you!" Ayo yelled after him. He only lifted his hand in a lazy manner, before he rounded the last corner and disappeared out of the main entrance.

Neji positioned himself on the roof, his legs dangling over the edge. He watched the kids that were in the school yard. There was a lot of them. Neji was convinced that not even half of them was going to become anything special.

Some boys gathering into a big crowd caught his attention. A lot of the boys from class was circling around that wired kid, Rock Lee. One of them stepped out and pushed at Lee, making him stumble backwards. Another boy pushed him from behind, so he stumbled forward and fell to the ground. All the boys broke into a laughing fit, pointing at Lee as he tried to get up.

Neji bit his teeth together in annoyance. He pushed himself off of the roof and dumped down on the concrete ground, keeping his eyes on the laughing crowd. It seemed like the entire school yard fell silent as Neji rose up into a standing position and walked over the boys that surrounded Lee.

"You," he said to the boy that had pushed Lee the first time. The boy, a blonde guy with spiky wild hair and brown eyes, turned around to face the Hyuuga prodigy. He had a slightly worried look on his face, but was comforted by the fact that he had all the boys on his side while Neji was only one.

"What do _you_ want, Hyuuga?" he spat, and acted tough. All the other boys glanced at each other nervously.

"If you really feel such a need to fight someone, shouldn't you challenge yourself a little and charge at someone who at least knows how to fight back?" Neji spat and glared arrogantly at the blonde. Lee had managed to sit up now, and was staring at Neji too, not believing that he was defending him.

"What do you care?" the blonde asked, and swallowed not sure how to handle what he was sure was to come.

"Cowards like you make me sick," he said and took a few steps towards him. The entire crowed backed away hurriedly, some of them stumbling over their own feet in the progress.

"You shouldn't act so tough you know! We're like ten ninja's here, and _you_, you are only one," he said loudly, still trying to scare Neji off. Neji snorted, and smirked at them.

"So come on then." All the boys blinked at him, worry written all over them. "If you think you can fight me then go ahead." No one moved. "Get lost," he muttered and walked over to Lee to give him a hand. Everyone backed away, no one dared to challenge him.

Neji took Lee's hand and pulled him forcefully up from the ground.

"Thank you," Lee said hurriedly, an embarrassed look on his face. "I wish I could have fought them off myself," he added, looking to the ground.

"Maybe you now can see that you are not supposed to be a ninja," Neji muttered, and turned to leave. The bell was going to ring in a couple of seconds anyway. All the student's in the entire school yard watched him walk through the door as the bell rang.

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**The Sideline**

Tenten and Ayo both stared after Neji as he disappeared around the next corner. Tenten's heart was pounding violently inside her chest, and she was pretty sure her cheeks were on fire. Ayo was still seated on the desk, when she looked at her now bandaged hand for the first time.

"He's scary up close," she muttered silently, her panting finally slowing down. Tenten turned towards her, surprised at the disappointed tone in her voice. She had expected Ayo to hyperventilate or something, but she sounded almost frightened. "He doesn't have pupils at all…"

"I thought you were in love with him?" Tenten said, unbelievingly.

"But I've never seen him this close before… I'm mean his eyes… He looked so creepy, I couldn't even _talk_," she said, a deep frown on her face. She rubbed her bandaged hand with her left one, staring at the door in front of her.

"Haven't you noticed that before?" Tenten asked, not believing what she was hearing. "You stare at him all the time, but you haven't noticed that his eyes are special until now?" Ayo just shook her head, still staring at the door in front of her.

It took some minutes, but soon Ayo recovered and the two best friends could join their friends outside in the sun.

"Ayo, Tenten! What took you so long?!" one of the girls from their usual gang shouted from across the school yard. Tenten and Ayo walked up to them and squeezed in between the other girls to join the conversation.

"What's up?" Tenten asked casually. The other girls grinned.

"Talking about Neji," one of them said, no one noticed how Ayo suddenly stiffened besides Tenten. "Hana, thinks he _scary_," the same girl laughed, and the other's in the circle grinned too.

"Seriously! Have you ever seen him up close? He's creepy!" Hana, a blonde girl said and looked at one to the other.

"He's not scary, he's _hot_," an other girl said dreamily and looked up at him. "He's on the roof again."

"I agree with Hana, actually," Ayo suddenly blurted out. Tenten turned towards her, not believing how she could change opinion about him so suddenly. "I saw him up close just now, his eyes don't even have _pupils_," she said, and swallowed, looking like she was completely traumatized. There was a moment of silence before anyone said anything.

"When did you see him up close?" one of them blurted out, ignoring the comment about his eyes.

"He bandaged my hand because Tenten did it wrong," Ayo explaned, gaining a annoyed sigh from Tenten. "He looks so hot from a distance but when you're actually facing him… I couldn't even say anything!"

There was another long silence. Tenten wanted to point out that his eyes wasn't creepy, but beautiful, but she had promised herself not to let anybody know what she felt for the prodigy, so she kept her mouth shut.

"Hey, what are they doing over there?" Ayo asked with a frown, her head turned towards left.

All the girls turned around to see what she was talking about. The boys from class were all circling around Lee. Tenten immediately walked over to see what they were doing, and felt her irritation rise when a roar of laughter was heard from the large group of boys. The other girls also came closer to see what was going on, along with all the other kids in the school yard.

Tenten yelped in surprise when Neju Hyuuga dumped down on the ground a few meters away from her. She froze along with everyone else when she saw the annoyed look on his face, and didn't want to be a part of whatever was going to happen. Ayo came to a halt by her best friend's side, and tapped her lightly on her shoulder.

"What do you think he's gonna do?" she whispered, and stared at the scene in front of her like it was a TV show.

"I don't know," Tenten muttered, and stared at the prodigy, wondering if he really was going to stand up for Lee.

"You," Neji's strong voice rang out into the tense silence. Tenten could feel her heart rate slowly picking up its pace. Neji walked up to the huge gang of boys, not even the slightest hint of fear or worry on his face. Tenten couldn't hear what he said next, but it didn't take much time before the boys had backed away from his cold glare.

Tenten felt like her heart was melting as Neji pulled Lee up from the ground, said something she didn't quite catch and walked over to the door. He really did stand up for Lee. He was like a hero. She watched him go through the door just as the bell rang, and didn't realize that the entire school was doing the same as her until after he had disappeared behind the walls.

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**A/N:** I'm mentally preparing myself for your opinions about this. 'Cause I'm happy with it, there's just this little feeling in my belly that makes me uneasy. So I'll repeat it, if you think this is crap and unworthy and all that, tell me and I will rewrite it, it might take some time, but I will at least try to make it better, IF you tell me to ;D

So I really hope you liked it and I'm kinda looking foreward to hear from you all : D


	5. Chapter 5 The Locked and The Open

**A/N: **I am so inspired to write this now! But those of you who read this but also read my toher story; fear not, I'm already working on chapter 18 ;DAs I always say: I'm sorry if there are any obvous spelling mistakes that I've overlooked, if there are, please tell me.

Also, there are certain things in this "clan" concept I'm not entirely getting. Do a Hyuuga have to marry another Hyuuga? I mean, wouldn't that be like incest? And why haven't we ever seen just a glimpse of Neji's mother? 'Cause he have to have one, right? He's never mentioned that she was dead, and I think that if his mother was dead, it would only be natrual to mention that when he told Naruto about his father's death? Right? So, I'm not really feeling like an incest supporter at the moment, so I decided that Neji's mother, in my story, is married into the clan and that she is very much alive! : D

e1nav57: Thank you so much for reviewing all my chapters! That really made my day : D

**Thanks for all the wonderful reviews!**

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the naruto series. _

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**Chapter 5. Locked**

Neji glanced around the corridor as he was headed out of the classroom, on his way home. Some of the girls had been acting strange the entire day, looking at him and whispering in a new way. Just yesterday they had been blushing and whispering between giggles if he only glanced at them, but today, they were frowning, like realizing something new about him they hadn't seen before. It made it hard to focus.

Trying hard not to let it bother him he pushed past the students in the hall and out of the main exit of the school. He walked out of the school gates; glad to be free from the Academy until next morning. He needed to meditate.

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Five minutes later Neji walked swiftly in through the big doors of the Hyuuga mansion, and glanced arrogantly at the pair that was sparring in the empty sparring yard. His uncle was strictly trying to teach his daughter, Hinata, to fight better, but his frustration with the girl was making it hard for the man to be patient. Neji clenched his jaws tightly, and headed to the Branch House without acknowledging his presence.

He entered the Branch House and followed the long corridors until he reached what the Hyuugas liked to call the living room. It was more like a huge library, but seeing as it was the only room containing a TV, it seemed only natural to call it a living room. The TV was rarely used though, books were more suitable for the Hyuuga style. The room was big and open, with wide windows to let the light in. The walls where mostly white, and the floor was wooden and cold against Neji's bare feet.

He dumped down on one of the light beige couches and allowed his head to fall back. He sighed heavily happy to finally enjoy some time alone. For one second he considered turning the TV on, but he quickly pushed that thought away.

He put his feet on the coffee table in front of him and closed his eyes, trying hard to get some rest, silently enjoying the fresh air in the over-cleaned room.

"Hi, there Neji," a brown haired woman said as she entered the room. Neji could smell the sweet scent of her newly dried robes from where she stood, and he didn't need to open his eyes to know who it was. Her voice was more than familiar to him.

"Hi, mom," he said without moving even an inch. He listened to her light footsteps as she crossed the room to stand behind him. He felt her put her arms on the back of the couch on each side of his head and leaned over him to look at her one and only son.

"You look tired. How was your day?" she asked, and used her left hand to softly stroke his cheek. He jerked his head away from her touch and opened his eyes to look at her. Her smile faded and she put her hand back on the beige fabric of the couch.

"It was uneventful," Neji told her and lifted his head from the couch to look at the black screen of the TV, positioned on the other side of the room by the wall. It was ridiculously big, Neji thought to himself.

"Aren't you even going to tell me about it?" she asked motherly, and put her hand on Neji's head, once again trying to gain contact with her son.

"There not much to tell," Neji said monotonously, and moved on the couch, pretending to change position, but really just wanting to get away from her touch. It wasn't because he didn't like it, it was because it made him feel uncomfortable. When his mother tried to touch him or give him a hug it made all sorts of feelings enter his head, and that was something he couldn't let happen. He heard her sigh as she elegantly moved to sit down next to him on the couch.

Her name was Maaya Hyuuga, married into the Hyuuga clan with Neji's father, Hizashi. Now she was mostly a pretty woman with no husband, a lot of sorrow and a son that rarely showed any sign of being happy. Her light brown hair hung loosely down her back, a few loose strands formed her pale face. She sat down, slightly turned to the right so she could face Neji. Her blue eyes desperately tried to catch his pale eyes.

"Neji," she started and took a deep breath, whishing that in the future it would be easier for her to talk to her son. "Can't you at least look at me." Neji turned to face her, forcefully keeping all emotions away from his face. "You sure there aren't anything you'd like to tell me about today?" she asked again, and refreshed the motherly smile. Neji sighed and moved his eyes to look at her hands folded in her lap.

"There really isn't anything to tell, mom. Every day is just the same," Neji muttered.

"Neji, you are a thirteen year old boy; tell me about your friends," she suggested and used her hand to support her head.

Neji didn't say anything, and he certainly didn't look at her anymore. He didn't want to tell his own mother that he didn't have any friends, and he knew that she didn't want to hear why he never tried to get any friends, so there really wasn't anything left for him to say.

"Neji..?" she urged.

"Can't _you_ just tell me about your day, if you're so eager to talk," he blurted out, and offered a sideways glance. Maaya sunk deeper into the couch, and moved her eyes away from her son. A tense silence filled the room around them – a type of silence that never should occur between a mother and a son.

"Maaya," a male voice called from out in the corridor. Maaya turned her head towards the door.

"I'm in the living room," she called back, and turned to see who it was. A man in his early fifties moved to stand in the doorway. He was dressed in black robes and his long hair was discreetly turning gray. His serious face was decorated by wrinkles, all of them deepening when he talked.

"The Elders want to have a word with you about Neji," he said, not caring about the curious look that appeared on Neji's face. "_Now_." he left them in silence, not bothering to give anymore info.

"Better be going then," Maaya sighed and rose from the couch. "I'll tell you what this is about tonight, all right?" she said, and turned to look at Neji just as she was about to exit the room. Neji looked at her for some seconds, knowing that she was really trying to reach out for him, but reminded himself that he couldn't let her reach him, he had to stay strong.

"They're waiting for you," was all he said. Maaya lingered by the door, staring at her son wondering where he was keeping the 13 year old hidden.

Neji breathed out in relief when she had left, and quickly made his escape out of the mansion, so he could get some much needed air.

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**Open**

Tenten walked home feeling annoyed to the absolute limit. Ayo and Hana had been manipulating the girls in their class to look at Neji's "scary eyes" all day, and now, all of a sudden, half of the girls in class didn't know if they were really that into him anymore. _"I just never realized how scary he is," _was what most of them said when Tenten had raised her brows at their shallowness.

She dumped down by the kitchen table and nearly slammed her head into the wooden table. Luckily, Kira, her mother stopped her by grabbing her shoulders.

"That is not a good idea, Tenten," she said, and blinked at her daughter's unusual behavior. Tenten groaned and buried her head in her arms in stead. "Did something happen in school today?" Her mother asked with a frown, and moved over to the kitchen bench so she could start preparing dinner.

"Yes," Tenten started and pouted with frustration. "Turns out all my friends are shallow… _persons_," she blurted out, too annoyed to get up with a better word.

"What happened? Why are they so shallow?" Her mom asked, and turned to lean back on the kitchen bench to give her daughter all her attention.

"Well, you know almost all the girls in class used to have this huge crush on Neji Hyuuga," she started, not sure if telling her mom was a good or a bad idea. "And now Ayo, and a girl in class named Hana, are manipulation the other girls in class to think that his eyes are scary, and by lunch today half of the girls suddenly didn't have a crush on him anymore because they _suddenly_ think that his eyes are scary, and let me tell you one thing, his eyes are _not scary_, they're pretty!" She said in one breath, and crossed her arms over her chest and leant back in the chair. "Just because Ayo changed opinion, now everyone else does too. It's so stupid," she muttered under her breath.

"Not every one is able to have their own opinions at your age, Tenten. You should just be happy you are able to," Kira said softly, and turned to face the kitchen bench again.

"But it's so stupid," Tenten repeated. "I'm going out for some air," she said, and rose from her seat to leave the house again.

"But you just got home?" Kira pointed, raising a brow at her daughter.

"I'll be back in no time," Tenten said and flashed her mother a forced smile before she stumped down the streets of Konoha, still feeling the overwhelming irritation in her belly. She walked in the opposite direction of the school, praying that she wouldn't meet Ayo or some of the other girls from school, right now she just wanted to be alone.

Tenten had walked all the way up to the Hyuuga district, when she finally realized that the sky was covered of dark clouds ready to open up any time. She glanced up nervously, and were about to turn around and head home when she spotted the big doors of the Hyuga mansion being opened. Tenten froze on the spot, and stared at the door as it slid back and revealed a slender boy with long dark hair. He glanced over his shoulder before he put his hands into his pockets and walked up the street towards Tenten. She nearly panicked, but somehow managed to find inner peace, and tried to decide what she was going to do. She wanted to talk to him, but didn't know if she should, or if she _could_ at all.

"Hey, Tenten!" Tenten spun around with surprise and spotted Ryuu waving at her from farther down the street she had just come from. She waved back at him and smiled even tough she really didn't like him that much. He had a tendency to be mean to others, especially Lee from their class at the Academy. She laughed inside when she thought about how Neji had "handled" him the other day.

He wore casual clothes and had his blonde hair pulled neatly up in wild spikes, pointing to every direction. His blue eyes were sharp edged, but still very pretty to look at. Tenten hated to admit it, but he was pretty nice looking.

As he came up to her she glanced over her shoulder trying to spot Neji, but he had disappeared. She sighed with disappointment.

"What are you doing here?" Ryuu asked with a smile, and came to a halt in front of the brunette.

"I just needed a walk," Tenten said, and shifted her weight feeling just a little uncomfortable. "What about you? You don't live here?"

"Nah, my mom made me visit my grand mother. I even had to bring this," he said and lifted his hand to show Tenten a bottle of fish oil. Tenten made a face and were about to ask what on earth his grand mother needed fish oil for. "I know, don't ask. I have absolutely no idea what she needs this stuff for, and I kind of want it to stay that way," he said and laughed a little.

Tenten caught herself giggling. She couldn't deny that he was a nice guy, even though he also was a jerk some times.

"So, this is where the Hyuuga people live, huh?" he asked casually, but Tenten could see the poorly hidden look of annoyance in his face.

"Yeah, I saw Neji leaving the house just now," Tenten said and folded her hands behind her back, trying to sound normal.

"Jeeze, the guy sure has a temper, eh?" he said and tossed the bottle of fish oil from his left to his right hand a few times.

"You know I actually support him in what he did yesterday," Tenten said, not allowing herself to take her eyes away from him. "It's seriously not cool to pick on Lee just because – "

"I wasn't the only one doing it!" Ryuu defended himself, and like usual he wasn't very mature.

"Yeah, but next time, maybe you'll be the one that's _man_ enough to stand up against the other losers," Tenten said and smirked at him, happy with her comment. For a minute he looked like he was about to burst into an explosion, but he calmed down, and sighed heavily.

"I guess your right," he said and averted his eyes from her. Tenten grinned as he crossed his arms over his chest and fought a pout from entering his lips.

"Haha, you kid," Tenten said, and grinned at him. He sure had done some miracles for her mood. "Thanks for making me laugh, you saved my day," she said, receiving a satisfied grin from the blonde boy.

A drop, followed by a hundred drops landed on Tenten's head, giving her goosebumps all over. Ryuu grimaced and quickly pulled his hood over his head so the rain wouldn't destroy his spikes.

"I spoke too soon," Tenten muttered, and dropped her shoulders in a frustrated manner.

"I better get inside, grandma' is probably watching us from her window right now," he said and grinned jokingly. Something in the way he said the word _"us"_ made Tenten flinch a little, but she didn't let it show on her face.

""I'll see you later then," Tenten said and waved to the blonde. He gave her one last grin before he turned around and ran to his grand mothers door. Tenten glanced one last time over at the Hyuuga mansion before she too turned to head home.

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**A/N: **Jeeze, I'm starting to like my own OC's... what's happening to this world?

I think we're nearing the end of the Academy-chapters, I wanna start writning about team Gai! :D


	6. Chapter 6 Expected and Unexpected

**A/N:** I am SORRY for taking so long with this chapter! School is seriously taking all my time! This is not really a long chapter, and I'm sorry for that. Next one will be longer, and hopefully I'll upload it faster than this time. Also the Tenten part is reeeeally tiny this time.

Since I know very little about team Gai's past I make most of this up. I just randomly picked a number and decided that they orginally were called Team 9, and later, Gai will name their team after himself. Also, since I know some of you are very picky on details and such I decided not to write the events from the anime filler - episode with details in fear of getting some of the lines wrong or whatever.

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**Chapter 6. Expected**

Neji had seen it all coming. In some miraculous way, Rock Lee, the failure of the class, had managed to graduate from the Academy by only using his Tai Jutsu skills. Neji had already realized that Lee and him would be placed on a team together, and he wasn't surprised at all when he was placed on team 9 with Lee and, luckily, the one person in class that annoyed him the least, Tenten – the girl that broke the target board.

At first he wanted to protest, but he eventually managed to convince himself that it was possible to make this work out somehow. At least he had Tenten on the team. She seemed to be pretty quiet, but at least she was able to use both Tai-Jutsu and Nin-Jutsu, and that was worth a lot. The fact that she was skilled with weapons only made the matter better. She had potential to become a good ninja.

It wasn't before after they had met their new Sensei that Neji was starting to lose his confidence. The man was, to put it mildly, insane! Just his appearance was a sight no one should ever have to see.

His name was Maito Gai. He had made it perfectly clear that they were all to call him Gai Sensei. His voice was deep and filled with laughter at all times it seemed, and a blinding grin was constantly plastered on his tanned face. One of the biggest problems with the man, Neji skeptically thought for himself; was that he was proudly wearing a green, _tight_, jumpsuit, that revealed way to much of the man's body shape, complimented by a nice pair of orange leggings, that just seemed to come out of no where. The green Jounin west he was wearing was the only unpainful sort of clothing the man wore.

Another problem was the black bowl cut, and his extremely big eyebrows. Neji shivered almost every time Gai moved his brows, because the motion almost made them look alive.

Neji had noticed how Tenten discreetly backed away from the tall man. The nervous look on her face made it perfectly clear that she was feeling the same as Neji.

On the other side of Tenten, Lee was nearly exploding with excitement with the new sensei. His fists were clenched and his face was filled with joy and anticipation. It had become all clear for Neji during the "get-to-know-each-other-meeting" that Gai was the type that believed in hard work and a good spirit. It all made Neji want to hold a speech of his own about the ways of life, but he proudly narrowed it down to a few sentences, working as a sarcastic comment about Lee's plans on showing everyone that they had mistaken him, and that he could become a great ninja by just using his Tai-jutsu. Neji almost laughed by the memory.

As the meeting was over and Neji was eagerly making his way down from the big veranda they had been sitting in, Gai grabbed his shoulder and made him wait, while the two others left down the stairs.

"Neji, I have noticed that you are unpleased with how things have turned out," Gai said fatherly and let go of Neji's shoulder.

For a while Neji remained silent, and stared disbelievingly at the older man. How could this lunatic tell what he was feeling? He didn't know him at all, and yet he was trying to reach out to him? How stupid.

"Hn," was all Neji cared to say as an reply.

"I can assure you that my training techniques will work perfectly well for all three of you, and I am sure, that if you'll just give this a chance, you'll become a great ninja, with a great team in no time!" The green clad man boomed and lifted his hand to give Neji an overwhelming thumbs up, adding a striking pose and a grin that could blind one forever.

Neji felt the need to back away, but kept his cool, and tried to make his face look indifferent again, but the heavy amount of doubt in his frown was hard to remove.

"You don't have to try and motivate me. You should use your energy on the other two in stead, they need it more than me," Neji said bluntly. He was confident that he could find his own ways to train. He didn't need this loud mouthed, green clad freak to teach him anything.

"We'll see about that at training tomorrow! You're going to have to prove yourself before talking that big to me, you over-proud little Hyuuga boy!" Gai boomed, and threw his head back as a new laughing fit erupted from his wide open mouth.

Neji could almost feel the floor shaking beneath his feet as Gai's laughter came louder. He grimaced and could not do anything to hold the glare back from his face.

"I am leaving now," he said, and turned sharply to leave.

"I'm looking forwards to our first training session tomorrow morning!" Gai roared after him.

Neji exited the veranda quickly, and used the stairs inside the building to get down to the streets again. As he walked through the main entrance of the building, he mentally decided that he was blessed to have Tenten on his team. Along with him, she seemed to be the only sane person on Team 9, and he obviously needed her for their group dynamics to work out properly.

As he busily tried to work out a strategy for the upcoming training session, Neji spotted the brown haired girl on his team. She was walking down the street at a very slow pace, and seemed to be alone. Lee must have left too, Neji thought to himself. He sighed as a new thought hit him. If they were to be on a team together, they would have to know each other. The sooner the better.

Neji briefly considered to walk up to her and talk, but the idea of being the one to take initiative to socialize was a little heavy for him. For some minutes he lingered at a distance behind the slim girl, walking in her slow pace debating with himself whether to say something or not.

The decision was taken as he realized that he was acting like a coward.

"Tenten," he said firmly, falling to a halt, waiting for her to react.

She spun around, her eyes a little big, and froze when she saw him. He stood with his hands in his pockets and kept his eyes directly at hers. For a second he wondered why she looked so tense. He decided that he must have startled her.

"Hi," he said, and awaited a verbal response from the girl.

"Hi," she said, and looked puzzled.

"So what do you think about him?" Neji asked casually, and took one step towards her.

"About Sensei?" she asked, and put her hand to the back of her neck as she thought a little about it. "He's… not what I expected," she said, putting it mildly. Neji snorted. "Well, what do you think then?" she asked, lowering her hand to fold it along with the other one behind her back.

"Hn… Even though I seriously doubt the man's sanity, I will not judge his abilities as a sensei before tomorrow. I'm not impressed yet, though," he said with a monotonously voice. Tenten nodded her head, and averted her eyes from him a little. She was feeling a little uncomfortable, Neji noticed.

"Why are you uncomfortable?" he asked, smirking slightly at the shocked expression on her face.

"I don't know… It's just that you've never really talked to me before," she said with a silent voice, finally meeting his eyes for more than five seconds.

"I figured that since we are on a team now, we have to know each other," Neji explained, not changing his expression at all. "We have to know each other pretty well, actually."

"Mhm," she agreed, and sucked on her lips in an innocent manner. Neji ignored it.

"Where do you live?" he asked and walked up to her so they could walk side by side. Tenten followed him instantly.

"I live just down this street. Not very far from the Academy," Tenten said, still with her hands folded behind her back. "I know where you live," she said silently, keeping her eyes on the ground. Neji noticed a slight addition of color in her cheeks.

"Hn," he muttered, and stared right ahead. It annoyed him that he wasn't more than an inch taller than her. She looked so little, but she was actually _almost_ just as tall as him. "How did you get so good with weapons?" he asked, still not looking at her. He did not fail to notice how her eyes widened and her head turned sharply towards him as he asked.

"Well, I… My dad's got a really good aim, and he was the one that made me love weapons so much," Tenten started, putting a slim finger on her lip as she thought back. "I got my aim from him. He used to give me lessons in aiming and such in our back yard before I started on the Academy." Neji merely nodded his head and fell silent, waiting for her to ask something.

"How 'bout you? How did you get so good at… _everything_?" she asked with a smile on her lips. Neji glanced at her from the crock of his eye.

"It's my destiny," he answered shortly, an annoyed tone in his voice. The recent smile on Tenten's lips faded.

**Unexpected**

"It's my destiny," Neji answered shortly, sounding like he was annoyed that she had asked the question. Tenten's smile faded and she turned her head to look forward.

She silently wondered how she was going to make this all work out. Her sensei was obviously crazy, Lee was okay, but still a little weird and loud, which could get a little annoying at times. And then there was Neji. He was monotonous like always, but he had been rude and mean to Lee at the meeting, something that shocked her after the incident at the Academy a week ago, when Neji had stood up for Lee and been kind to him. Tenten was disappointed in him, but now that he finally was talking to her she couldn't help but to enjoy it.

"I'm feeling a little nervous," Tenten blurted out, not wanting the silence to ruin the moment completely.

"Of what?" Neji asked without looking at her.

"Training tomorrow," she answered, not sure how he would react to her confession.

"It'll probably be alright," was all he said. Tenten wondered how he could keep his face so indifferent.

"Here's my house," she said, as they approached said house. Neji came to a halt, not because he wanted to, but because he was relatively well mannered, Tenten told herself, not giving herself a chance to put too much into it. Neji looked at her, obviously waiting for her to say something. Tenten remained silent as she met his gaze. His special eyes captured her so easily.

"Well," he said after a short break. "I'll see you tomorrow morning," muttered forcedly and averted his eyes from her, turning to leave. As he looked away, Tenten got back to her senses and remembered how to respond.

"Yeah, bye," she said, skillfully keeping her voice calm, even though her stomach was twisting uncomfortably. With no more said, he walked farther down the street and rounded the first corner, on his way home. Tenten stayed out on the street right in front of her door for some time, wondering how on earth Team 9 would turn out in the end.

Her eyes fell to the ground with shame as she noticed her high pulse. One boy shouldn't have the powers to effect her this way, she told herself. It seemed like Neji Hyuuga wasn't just a regular boy, but then again, she never thought he was.

* * *

**A/N:** I know it's short, but I hope it was of some kind of entertainment for you guys. I love your reviews so please take your time to tell me what you think. Also if you have any ideas about this story, feel free to tell me about them! : D


	7. Chapter 7 Team Mates

**A/N**: I am sorry! Jeeze what a bad person I am for being such a slow updater. I have been writing a little bit every day though, believe it or not. I just never get enough time to sit down and write untill I'm finished anymore. I blame school, my horse, my friends and my boyfriend. They take all my time.

* * *

**Chapter 7. Team mates**

**//Neji//**

Neji panted so hard that his whole body moved along with his breath. He could taste the familiar taste of blood in his mouth, and skillfully spat it out, trying to get rid of the horrible taste. Besides him, Tenten had fallen to the ground and was trying her very best to get up into a sitting position again. Neji could easily see that she was too exhausted to manage it. Her ridiculously little figure was shaking, making Neji have to turn away from her, annoyed at her weak body.

"That was good for a warm up, my students!" Gai roared in front of them. He merely glanced at Lee who was kneeling down besides him, looking like he was about to throw up by the sensei's feet, and lifted his eyes to direct them shortly on the girl who just managed to look up at him, and then at the only student that had managed to remain on his feet. Neji Hyuuga.

Neji couldn't help but to glare at the green man in front of him. _Warm up?_ An hour's non stop running was no more than a warm up? What a waste of time.

"Neji, help your team mate up on her feet," Gai said, and pulled Lee mercilessly up by his arm.

Neji glanced down at the brunette that finally had managed to sit up on her knees. She glanced up at him too, catching his eyes for a second before he turned to face his sensei again.

"No," Neji answered firmly, looking his sensei straight in the eye. Gai narrowed his brows slightly, but put on his cheerful face nevertheless.

"Why not? I thought Hyuuga's were supposed to be well-mannered," Gai said, smirking at the annoyed frown on the young man's face.

"She's able to stand up on her own. If she can't; she cannot call herself a ninja," Neji replied, not caring about the growing hurt that was showing on Tenten's face. Gai narrowed his brows, and slowly lost his patience with the boy. Neji noticed how the man lost his smile, and how he pulled his lips into a thin line with annoyance.

"Cooperation is of utter importance, Neji. If she was fatally wounded, would you not help her then?" Gai asked, putting his big hands on his green clad hips.

"She isn't wounded, she is tired after your moronic warm up session, which was, after my opinion, nothing but a huge waste of time," Neji said monotonously, glaring at his sensei. Gai sighed loudly, and were about to say something when Tenten stood up on shaky legs. Her face was still red from the run, but her expression was changed into a bit more angry one.

"Don't talk about me like I'm some little girl that needs help to everything. I'm fully able to _stand_ on my own!" She said, her voice filled with annoyance and hurt pride. Neji watched her with an arrogant look on his face as she dusted off of herself and straightened up her back, even though she still was a little too tired to do so.

He himself had finished panting, and stood as tall as ever, watching her as she tried to glare at him, but by some unknown reason; couldn't do it properly.

"Alright, Prodigy-boy!" Gai exclaimed, looking at Neji, who twitched violently at the nick name. "What is it that makes a Team work out right?" The Sensei asked, and smiled a forced smile. Neji sighed, but kept his attitude on. It was a perfect mask.

"Cooperation," he said, his voice confident and solid. "We have to know everything about each other. How we work, how we train and how we think."

"Correct!" Gai exclaimed. "Well said, Neji!" Neji could not help raising his eyes. Did this man think he was some six year old that needed motivation? Neji did not approve of people that treated him like a child.

"I have a few exercises that will help you three get started…"

* * *

Gai's training wasn't over before all three of them had collapsed on the ground, including Neji, who had bravely been standing until his legs were numb and shaking. He was currently trying his very best to keep his breakfast inside. How long had they been training now? Four hours? Five, six?

"I am proud of you all! Tomorrow, you'll be able to take half an hour more!" Gai said, standing tall like ever, even though he had been doing the exact same training as them. Neji, unwillingly, realized that his new sensei was stronger than he had first thought, but that didn't weigh up on the fact that the man was crazy.

Lee was moaning in pain besides Neji, looking pathetic as ever, almost drowning in his own sweat. Neji crawled up on all four so he could move a little away from them, he needed to be alone. He used his hand to rub the sweat off of his face, and sighed tiredly. He looked over his shoulder and got a glance of Tenten weakly getting to her feat. He turned away again, trying to block all thoughts out so he could meditate.

Calm. Nice and quiet. Breathe.

"You are all allowed to go home now! Same time tomorrow!!!"

_Calm_. Stay calm, Neji kept telling himself. He breathed in and out and focused on that and nothing else.

"Neji?"

Tenten's girly voice broke through his meditation, and made him jerk his eyes open. An annoyed glare slipped through, but he managed to choke it. He knew he had to at try and get along with her. He could see how her legs were shaking by just standing up. She needed some meditation too, he noted.

"Yes?"

"Aren't you going home?" She asked innocently, and licked her lips. Neji noticed how her hands were moving nervously in front of her. She was having a hard time talking to him, Neji noticed.

"I need to meditate a little first. To calm my body," he explained, keeping his face indifferent as he looked up at the girl. Her eyes glanced to the sides a few times, and she nervously bit her lip. She looked like she wanted to say something, but wasn't sure if she should. Neji knew what she wanted. He had to remind himself that she was one of the only human beings he knew that didn't annoy him, and as he did, he found himself not hating the idea of having her there to join him.

"Do you want to join me?" he asked monotonously, and kept his eyes on her. She hesitated but smiled and sat down in front of him, crossing her legs and leaning back on her hands. Neji didn't know what to do, and simply closed his eyes to continue his precious meditation.

Neji heard the sound of her lying down on her back, and sighing heavily. He could hear the sound of her legs stretching out, and felt himself getting more relaxed as she did.

"Tenten, do I make you nervous?" He asked suddenly, simply because he needed an answer from _her_, not his own guessing (even though he knew he was right).

He heard her swallow. "A little," she said with a tiny voice.

"Why?" Neji asked, still with his eyes closed. "Have I ever done anything to scare you?"

"No…" Tenten answered, a slight edge entering her voice. "It's just… The way you look at people."

"And how is that?"

"Like you are looking down on everyone except yourself," Tenten said, skillfully hiding the nerves that tried to fill her voice.

"Hn," he muttered, opening his eyes and looked at the girl lying in front of him. They were of the same age, but still Neji felt so much older than her.

She was avoiding his stare as best as she could, and he knew it. He wasn't even interested in catching her eyes, he was simply taking in his new team mate, wondering how she some day would become a ninja. She was so tiny. Her arms gave no hint of muscles, and her legs were slim and did not look like they would be able to stand up during a fight at all. Neji felt skepticism floating in him.

"Sit up," he ordered. Tenten pushed herself up on her elbows and looked questioningly at him. "You won't ease your body by just lying there, you need to meditate," Neji explained and sat up more properly to put an example.

Neji held in a frustrated sigh as he noticed Tenten's skeptical face.

"Come on. Cross your legs and sit up," he ordered and looked sharply at her. Why couldn't she just listen to him? He knew what she needed.

"Fine," she said, still a little hesitant. "Is this right?" She asked as she got into position.

"That's fine," Neji said, and closed his eyes ready for the ultimate peace to absorb him.

"What do I do now?" She asked, and once again ruined his most valued session of the day.

"Close your eyes," he started and tried his best not to glare at her. She didn't know better, he told himself. "Stay quiet, and think of something that calms you. Just think about that and _nothing_ else is allowed to enter your mind. Can you do that?"

"I think so."

"Good," Neji said, finishing the conversation almost before she had finished her sentence.

* * *

**//Tenten//**

Her heart was literary trying to beat its way out of her chest. To have Neji

talking to her was overwhelming and almost to much for her after the killer training session with Gai Sensei. To her pleasant surprise, she could feel her body slowly calming down to a comfortable mode, but she was too close to Neji to be completely calm. She knew she would have to get used to his presence sooner or later. If she didn't, working with him was going to become a nightmare.

The two of them sat like that in silence for a while. After fifteen minutes, Tenten started to get bored. Really bored. She opened her eyes and saw that Neji was in a complete trance. He wasn't moving, and there was no sign of actually breathing on him. He was frozen, and looked stunning. Tenten felt like she was swallowing down her heart.

"Hey, Neji?" she whispered, afraid she might annoy him.

"Hn?" he muttered. Tenten was not sure if he really was listening, but she decided to finish anyway.

"I should head home now," she said, and stood up, dusting off of herself. Tenten lingered in front of him for a few seconds, awaiting a reaction of some sort, but he remained frozen. "Is meditation really that big a deal for you?" she asked, feeling braver when he didn't look at her. The second he opened his eyes, her courage sank drastically again. Those dazzling eyes…

"It is of utter importance," he said, and stood up from the ground too. He dusted off his pants, and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I'll finish at home," he muttered and started walking. Tenten stood there, completely dumbstruck. Was he just going to leave like that? How rude!

"Are you coming?" – Or not so rude…

Tenten blinked a little. He was actually inviting her to spend more time with him. She could not help but the smile at the over serious prodigy.

"Sure," she said and walked up to him, acting as confident as she could. It didn't take many steps before she realized that she was way too tired to make it all the way home. She bit her lips, trying to calm her nerves. She did absolutely not want to break down in front of Neji. He would look upon her as weak forever… which he probably did already anyway. She sighed in frustration, and forced herself to keep walking on her shaking legs.

She didn't fail to notice how Neji was glancing down at her legs now an then. He knew. She cursed inwardly, and wished she could just pass out so she wouldn't have to experience this extremely awkward situation. But no. she was very much awake as her legs finally gave in under her, and she fell to the ground with a light "thump".

As she sat there, Tenten could not work up enough courage to look up at the boy standing next to her. She could feel his stare on her. She closed her eyes as a heavy sigh escaped her team mate.

"Are you alright?" he asked, in a frustrated voice.

Tenten was quick to nod her head yes, and tried to get up on her feet. She made it all the way up in a standing position, but it only lasted for five seconds before her legs gave in again. This time, Neji caught her before she reached the ground. His hand reached around her shoulders and allowed her to lean on him.

At that point, Tenten was certain that she was about to die of embarrassment. Her cheeks were burning red, and her throat suddenly felt swollen. She couldn't get out a sound.

Tenten's heart beat painfully fast as another sigh escaped his lips. He would forever look upon her as weak now, she thought and bit her lip.

"I guess I'll have to carry you," he muttered and were about to drag her onto his back. Tenten protested immediately.

"No, you don't need to! I can totally walk on my own," she said hurriedly, and were about to fall to the ground again. Neji huffed and rolled his eyes before he forced her onto his back by strength. "Seriously –"

"You are too tired to walk on your own," he said in a tone that made it obvious that he would not put her down until he had carried her all the way home. Tenten grimaced and wrapped her arms around his shoulders shakily. Oh, why couldn't she just die?

"Thanks," she whispered, too embarrassed to talk properly.

"Hn," Neji muttered.

Tenten spent most of the trip wondering if Neji thought she was heavy… or what he thought about her in general. She didn't dare to talk, even though the silence was almost killing her.

"This is your house, right?" Neji suddenly broke the silence, and stopped. Tenten blinked, and looked up to find her little house, in between the other, bigger houses.

"Yep," she confirmed and swallowed. What if she still was unable to stand on her own? Would the humiliation ever end? Neji lowered her to the ground carefully, like the gentleman he was taught to be.

"Think you can make it to your door?" he asked plainly, still with a supporting arm around her shoulders.

Even though she was extremely embarrassed, Tenten just couldn't help but to feel flattered. Would he do this for anyone? No way. Something told her he acted this kind because she was the one needing help. Because _she _was _his _team mate. Thinking like that made her smile, really smile.

"Yeah, thanks for the ride," she said, and took one careful step backwards, testing her legs a little. Seeing as she was able to stand on her own, Neji let go of her and put his hands in his pockets like he normally did.

"No problem. You should rest. I bet tomorrow is going to just as hard," Neji said, a hint of huge irritation floating in his delicate voice.

"I'll see you tomorrow then," Tenten said, and stumbled over to the low, concrete staircase in front of their door. Neji offered nothing more than a lazy hand motion before he turned around and walked away from her, probably heading home.

As he left and Tenten moved inside; all she could think was that tomorrow was going to be hard, but also a lot easier in some ways.

* * *

**A/N:** I have another issue when it comes to bad updating. "Never Leaving" have been laying around untouched for ages now, and I feel horrible for making you all wait so long. So my next update will be on that if anyone's interested. : )

Please, review. Those of you who actually do review, I love you! You are the reason I keep writing. If you hadn't been reviewing, this story would have been dead by now

As always, spelling mistakes and grammar catastrophes are almost expected, only I am to tired to scan the chapter right now. Tell me if you find anything particularly horrible ;)


	8. Chapter 8 No One's Perfect

**A/N: **I know I said that next update would be on Never Leaving, but let's face it... chapter 19 on Never Leaving is seriously hard to write! I suck at the whole fighting scene-thing! It always get's like: "and then he kicked, she jumped, he punched, she dodged," and I will never publish something like that!

This chapter, however, was a lot easier to write, especially since I got so many reviews, and advice! : D

**e1nav57:** I totally agree with you! I've been feeling like I've been doing something wrong and you just pointed it out for me! Thank you so much. I think made it kind of like a part of the story instead of just suddenly making her de-like him.

**extra type: **First of all: Thank you! Secondly; thanks for pointing it out! I've tried to improve "my Tenten" a little in this chapter, I'd really like to hear what you think about it anyway : D

**hullotherexx: **Can I just point out that I love you? You review all my updates, which is the coolest thing ever! Sorry I've been so lazy on Never Leaving, I'm really trying to get it right for you : 3

SO. This chapter is entirely in Tenten's point of view, simply because I needed to work on her : D

Hope you like it.

* * *

**Chapter 8. No one's perfect  
**

Tenten stared at her sensei, yet again doubting the man's sanity. Gai was lecturing them about the beauty of youth, yet again. She didn't understand it – or no, she did understand it, she just didn't _get it_. Why was this so important? The green clad ninja had been talking about this "youth - thing" every time they'd met to train lately, and he just didn't know when to shut up about it.

"And therefore, students, you have to worship this beautiful and non refundable time of your life!" he said clenching his fist up in the air dramatically. Tenten shook her head and sighed. What was his deal? Even though she didn't get him at all, and though she did not like looking at his horrible outfit, Tenten had started liking him. He was weird, but he believed in them and that was enough to gain _some _of the girls respect.

"Gai-Sensei! You are so full of knowledge!" Lee exclaimed from Tenten's right side. She glanced at him, not able to hide a humored smirk from her lips. Lee was cute in a very weird way. He had come to very nearly worship Gai Sensei and didn't hesitate in letting the world know.

On her left she could hear a poorly hidden huff from the ever so proud Hyuuga. Tenten had learnt how to control her heart around him during the two weeks they had been on a team together. It was a simple matter of heavy ignoring. If she didn't think about it, it would eventually go away. By now she was able to look at him without blushing and she could even talk normally around him.

She had also learnt that Neji was _not_ perfect. He was full of grudges and arrogance, but still she couldn't keep herself from feeling a slight thrill each time his hands barely touched her during training.

But all in all she was feeling better with herself than she had done in a long time. Ever since she had admitted to herself that she was _attracted _to Neji, she had been feeling weak and stupid, but now that she had learned to live with it, everything felt better. Now she could even spend time with him without anyone getting suspicious. It was great.

"We'll take a break!" Gai exclaimed and corrected his jumpsuit slightly. "I have something very important to do, and I _have _to be on time," Gai said and were about to speed off when Lee stopped him with his eternal eagerness.

"Gai Sensei! What is it that is so important?!" he asked, and sprinted over to the Jounin. Tenten glanced over at Neji and found him glancing at her too. She reminded herself to control her feelings.

"I have an arranged meeting…" Gai surely loved his dramatic pauses. "With my…" Lee stared at his sensei with his hands clasped together in front of him. "My eternal rival; Hatake Kakashi! And this time; I WILL beat him, or else I swear I'll do a thousand laps around Konoha!" Gai roared loudly and sprinted off towards the village, leaving Lee with tears in his eyes.

Tenten stared at the cloud of dust her sensei had left with them. What was this man's _deal_?! She blinked, feeling overwhelmed by the volume of his voice, and couldn't really move for some seconds.

"Hatake Kakashi?" Lee muttered, his back still turned towards Tenten and Neji. "Who is that?" he asked and turned to look at them.

Tenten thought for a second. She had heard of him. "The copy nin, right?" she asked and turned towards Neji, knowing he probably knew. He met her eyes with a lazy look on his face.

"Yes, he's said to be very strong," Neji said simply, and left it at that.

"That's all I've heard anyways," Tenten said and smiled at Lee with her hands folded behind her back. Lee put his finger to his chin in a thoughtful manner.

"I haven't heard of him at all," he muttered, mostly to himself, but it gained an arrogant look from the Hyuuga sitting on the ground. Tenten felt a pang of irritation.

"I wonder if he really _can _run a thousand laps around Konoha…" Lee muttered, again mostly to himself.

"That's impossible, Lee," Tenten said and grinned. "And very unnecessary."

"It's not impossible, Tenten! You have to remember that it is GAI sensei we are talking about!" Lee said, looking very seriously at Tenten. She wondered if Lee really thought anyone could run a thousand laps around Konoha, or if he was just trying to defend his role model.

"It doesn't matter who it is doing it. Running a thousand laps around the village is completely pointless, and a huge waste of time," Neji said, keeping his cold gaze directed at Lee who gave him a look of pure and utter shock.

Tenten sensed a war coming up, and nervously looked from Neji, who was slowly getting up into a standing position, and to Lee who stood with clenched fists at his sides.

"How can you say that!?" Lee yelled with his thin voice. "Gai Sensei is giving us all his attention and care so we one day will become just as great as him, and this is all the faith you can manage – "

"Lee," Neji cut the black haired boy off, gaining a curious _and _nervous look from both Tenten and Lee. "It's simply not possible. No matter who it is doing it."

Tenten knew Neji was right, but did he really need to sound so mean? During the next five minutes; Tenten only watched as the two of them argued – or, Lee argued, while Neji was pretty calm and stoic… and _stubborn_.

Another five minutes passed and they were getting no where. Tenten got tired of it and backed away from them, sitting down in the comfortable shade under a tree. She crossed her legs and leaned forwards on her elbows, looking at the two of them with a bored look on her face.

"_How long is this going to continue?" _She thought to herself and secretly wished Gai Sensei could hurry up and get back, so they could continue his extreme training. That way; at least those two would be too occupied with training to care about each other.

Tenten didn't notice herself, but she was avoiding looking at Neji, simply because she was still trying to deny her feelings. He had made it clear several times that he would not stand to be on a weak team, and therefore she had to pull it together and get over that stupid crush.

Another fact Tenten denied was that she was glad Lee was on their team; that way Neji would always prefer her during training. It was a bad thought. She was selfish and bad, and couldn't help it at all.

"FINE! We'll finish this with a fight!" Lee exclaimed loudly. His voice was filled with hurt pride and overreaction.

Tenten looked up at them with her mouth slightly agape. He couldn't be serious? Did Lee want to _fight_ Neji? She swallowed nervously and sat up more properly.

"What?" Neji asked arrogantly, sounding like that was the most humorous thing he'd ever heard. And it probably was too, Tenten thought, looking at Lee, who stood ready looking at Neji with his fight-face on.

"_Not a good idea," _Tenten thought and clenched her teeth together.

"You heard me! If this is how you want it, then _fine_! From now on; _you _will be _my _eternal rival! Like Hatake Kakashi is Gai Sensei's!" Tenten could not help but to raise a brow. Lee's obsession with their sensei could not be healthy.

Neji snorted and smirked. "Fine then," he said, in a smooth voice and got into his own fighting stance. That's when Tenten decided she had to do something.

"Guys!" She said loudly and stood up quickly. "This is seriously not a good idea."

Neji looked at her from the crock of his eye, but did not move out of his pose. Lee blinked at her a few times, his head turned away from Neji.

"No, Tenten! Do not interfere," Lee said, obviously trying to sound proud. Tenten could hear the light shake in his voice.

"Lee, stop being an idiot. You know that Neji's …" she hesitated, glancing over at Neji, her hands fiddling in front of her as a result of stress. "He's a lot stronger than you," she finished, looking at Lee with a stern look on her face. Lee looked hurt for a second, then he turned back to face Neji, with the same angry look back on his face.

"That is exactly why I have to fight him," he said, and charged.

* * *

Tenten sighed loudly. Fifteen minutes had passed and Lee was now lying on the ground, like a human knot, bleeding and moaning. Neji stood some feet away from him, dusting off of himself, appearing unaffected from the fight. Without even glancing at his female team mate, Neji turned around and left the training grounds.

Tenten waited until he was completely out of sight before she ran over to where Lee was lying. She waited, both because Lee wouldn't want her to "humiliate" him in front of Neji, and because she didn't know what Neji wanted her to do.

"Lee, you idiot," she said and fell to her knees in front of the black haired boy. "Are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

"I have felt better," he answered with a weak voice, still he manage to smile up at her through the blood and tears on his face.

"Next time, maybe you should think it through properly before you – " Tenten started, but Lee cut her off.

"You wouldn't understand," he started, and unfolded his limbs, sitting up in front of her while avoiding all eye contact. "I don't blame you. You don't know how it is to be the forever failure that everyone looks down upon," Lee's eyes lost their eternal spark as he lowered his gaze towards the grass. "And once again I have failed in proving them wrong."

"Lee…" Tenten started, completely at a loss for words. She knew she couldn't use sympathy; he would probably hate that. "Well, you're just gonna need to train harder then," she said, not sure if she was doing the right thing. Lee blinked at her.

"What?" he asked, sounding confused.

"Train more. Train everyday so you one day _can _show them wrong! That's the only way, right?" She grinned at him, trying her very best to encourage him. "And stop calling yourself a failure, 'cos your _not_."

"Tenten…" Lee mumbled as tears formed in his big, round eyes. "You are such a good friend!" he exclaimed and intended to throw himself at her in a big hug, but his aching limbs stopped him before he got far. "Ow!" he grabbed his arm and bit his teeth together.

"Is anything broken?" Tenten asked worriedly and put a hand on his shoulder.

"No, I don't think so," Lee said, and sighed as the pain eased. "Just badly beaten."

"Don't pull off a stunt like that again, okay?" Tenten said, and got up, offering Lee a hand.

"Don't worry! Next time _I will _win!" he said and grinned excitedly as he grabbed her hand and pulled himself up.

"Lee!" Tenten scolded. "You can't fight Neji! He's too strong," she said and put her hands on her hips. Her stomach ached painfully with guilt as a hurtful look appeared on Lee's face. He looked away from her, and sighed again.

"Here I thought you believed in me," he mumbled. Tenten swallowed to steady her voice.

"Of course I believe in you, but you have to face the facts: Neji is a ge –"

"_Genius_, I know." he said sourly. Tenten bit her lip nervously. She hated the look on his face, and she wished she hadn't opened her big mouth. "Don't worry, I _will _prove you wrong and beat him next time," Lee said, and put on a weak smile. He didn't even believe it himself this time.

* * *

**A/N:** I don't like it when the main person is all perfect and always says the right thing and stuff. Tenten is not, and cannot be a perfect person and that is why she took Neji's side at the end there.

Tell me what you think?


	9. Chapter 9 Cracks

**A/N: ***awkward pause* alright so I know it took me pretty much _forever_ to get this chapter uploaded, but here it is! :D So thanks for the reviews and please forgive me for my tardiness.

Disclaimer: I don't own this.

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**Chapter 9. Cracks**

The sky was covered in thick gray clouds. Soon they would release the rain they were holding on to. The sound of sharp metal slamming into target boards filled team 9's training area, always followed with loud encouraging yells from their over enthusiastic sensei.

Neji had given up weapon practice half an hour ago, finding it a waste of time since his aim already was more than good enough. Now he was sitting with his back against a tree watching his female team mate spin around with life threatening weapons in her hands. She had been hitting bulls eyes in an hour now, and Neji was sourly wondering if she'd ever run out of kunais.

Lee was jumping up and down cheering for her. It annoyed Neji to his very bones that no one except him found it utterly stupid that the whole training session was put on hold because Gai finally had noticed that, yes, Tenten had a pretty good aim.

"Brilliant, Tenten!" Gai roared while clapping his hands. Tenten stood slightly bent forward, panting heavily. She glanced up at her sensei slightly, before she laughed a soundless laugh and crashed down on her knees.

"I'm all out of scrolls," she said, gazing over the hundreds of shiny weapons laying spread out in front of her. Her scrolls were tossed to the side, laying lifelessly in the grass. Neji narrowed his eyes. He was definitely not going to clean _that_ mess up.

"I'm proud of you, Tenten! How come you've never shown me this talent of yours before?" Gai asked, stepping in front of the girl. Lee ran up to them, grinning so hard that Neji thought he could hear the boy's jaws crack.

Tenten stood up again, with her hand awkwardly on her neck. "I've never really had the chance, I guess," she said, truthfully.

Neji could see how she was blushing. She wasn't used to this kind of attention. Her knees shook a little, an obvious sign that she was tired. She would have to take much more exercise than that to be a real ninja. Her hands and knuckles were pulsing red, as she clenched and opened her hands, over and over again.

"Neji, don't you think you've had a long enough break by now?" Gai asked loudly, obviously pleased with himself – then again, he was always pleased with himself.

Neji merely glared at him, fighting the urge to say something. Silence was always the better way out with this man. He stood up feeling three pairs of eyes on him all the time.

"You mean you're actually going to start training all of us now?" he asked with an edge, crossing his arms over his chest. He noticed how Lee glanced up the taller man awaiting his response.

"Actually, no," Neji felt a huge wave of disbelief wash over him at his sensei's unexpected reply. "I am going to take Lee for some special training, while _you_ can stay here and practice your talent with Tenten," Gai said, and pointed forcefully at Tenten, as if daring Neji to disobey him.

"Sensei, what are we going to do?" Lee asked, looking up at his teacher with big, curious eyes.

"Ah, Lee, why are not all genin like you?" Gai laughed, and patted the boy's head fatherly. "We shall do something I like to call: "The super – unfailable – way to strength!"

"That sounds brilliant, Sensei!" Lee exclaimed, while Gai proudly put a finger to his chin.

"Let's go, Lee! TOP SPEED!"

Neji and Tenten were literarily left in their sensei's dust, while Lee stumbled after him, desperately trying to keep up. Neji sighed heavily, and used his left hand to try and rub the frown off of his face.

"So… should we just get started then?" Tenten's light voice asked from behind him. Neji turned around and eyed her arrogantly.

"Do you really think you can take me?" he asked bluntly, eyeing her up and down for the hundred time that day.

"Not really, but I think I'm a little tougher than you think," she answered, and surprised him by looking him directly into the eyes for once.

"Maybe you are, but I don't think it's a good idea," the truth was that he really didn't feel comfortable sparring with a girl. She just looked so weak, how on earth cold he bring himself to charge at her? He knew that was slightly stupid, but there was nothing wrong in being a gentleman, was it?

"But Gai Sensei said that –"

"He isn't here now, Tenten. Let's just go – " Just as Neji had finished speaking and put one foot in front of the other, Gai popped out of no where in an explosion of smoke.

"Where do you think your going, young man?!" he shouted loudly, and leaned over the boy with a rare glare on his face. Neji could not hide his sudden and utter shock by the huge man's sudden appearance and had to back away before the guy got too close. "I told you to stay and TRAIN!"

"Okay, okay! I'm staying!" Neji exclaimed putting his hands up in the air in defeat, a look of both annoyance and shock plastered on his usually plain face. One single sweat drop ran down the side of his head, as Gai finally drew back a little, and started laughing towards the sky again.

Neji blinked in confusion and glanced over at Tenten who looked at least as frightened as him. She was nearly on the other side of the training area by now, looking extremely skeptic.

"I thought you'd try to pull off a stunt like that! Haha! Good thing I've got such razor sharp reflexes!" He started doing some weird moves, trying to illustrate his reflexes for them. Neji was pretty sure he had made up his mind by now – his sensei was crazy!

"Tenten! You better teach this guy some discipline!" he said and disappeared just as sudden as he had appeared. Neji saw Tenten staring at the spot where the green beast had been standing, a look of confusion on her face.

* * *

As raindrops suddenly began hitting the two genin, they both agreed to finish their training for the day. Tenten was currently on the ground due to one of Neji's more powerful hits. Her skin was bruised and cut on several places, but she mentally told herself that it was worth it.

Shakily she got to her feet and started collecting all the weapons she had thrown around during their spar. As she filled her weapon holster, the rain seemed to just keep intensifying. She was almost soaked already. A smile was slowly creeping over her lips. She liked rain. Even though it was cold and felt like mini needles against her skin, she liked the refreshing feeling it gave her, especially now that she was both sweaty and dirty. She rubbed the dirt off her hands on her pants and quickly collected the last scrolls before she walked back to where Neji stood, waiting for her.

He was leaning against what seemed to be his favorite tree, shielded from the rain. A slight feeling of irritation washed over her when she saw him standing there almost completely dry. He could have at least helped her a little.

"We should wait here until the rain has stopped," he said shortly, and watched her as she tried to wipe the worst of the rain off of herself.

"What? Are you afraid of getting a little wet?" Tenten asked, not able to stop herself. She grinned at him, as he narrowed his eyes in irritation. He totally didn't like it when people made jokes about him.

"I don't really feel like getting a cold, it would come in the way of my training," he explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and gazed at the thousands of raindrops crashing down from the sky. "It's a little too late for you, though."

"Ey, I couldn't just let them lay there? They would have rusted!" she protested, suddenly feeling a little more serious. No weapon of hers would be forgotten in the rain, that's for sure.

Neji just shrugged and kept silent. He seemed to be a master in creating awkward silences. Tenten couldn't stop the rant in her head, telling her to find something to talk about before she went completely mad.

"Why are you so silent all the time?" _Oh my god..! _She mentally slammed herself in the head with a hammer. What kind of an ice breaker was that? Her brown eyes doubled their size as he actually answered the stupid question.

"Because I don't have anything worth saying."

His voice was cold and sounded deeper than usual. Tenten stared at him, praying that he would say something more, give her more details so she could understand. She wasn't very surprised when he stayed silent. She blinked and turned towards the rain again, fighting the curious butterflies in her belly.

"Why?" his voice broke the silence between them far more elegantly than she had done. She turned to look at him again, her bangs clinging to the sides of her face.

"You said we had to get to know each other, remember?" she answered, suddenly not feeling so awkward with him anymore. He didn't look away for once. His nearly blank eyes held hers for a while, while she waited for him to say something.

"Right," a smile flickered over his face, something Tenten couldn't remember to have seen before. She was taken aback by it, and was surprised to hear him talk again. "If I had been talking all the time, I would run out of intelligent things to say," he said. It sounded like a joke, but he didn't smile. Tenten stared at him, half grinning, without any clue to how she should react.

"Neji, can you please tell me the truth?" she asked, surprising herself with her new found guts. She forced herself to look at him, even though the look on his face made her a little nervous. He looked pretty torn. Maybe a part of him wanted to let her in and one refused? Tenten didn't know, but she was secretly crossing her fingers behind her back.

He snorted, and looked down. "I don't know what to tell you." The brunette tried to catch his eyes again, but this time he wasn't interested. "Why are you so interested, anyway?"

"Because I'm human?" she said, and lifted her eyebrows. What was so weird about her wanting to know more about him? He was very silent, and when he finally did talk he was usually just rude, and she wanted to know what was bothering him – that was not very hard to get, was it?

"You think it is human to care?" he asked, sounding a little sarcastic.

"Of course it is!" Tenten said, and felt a need to pick up her guard.

"_I_ think it is more human to be selfish," he said, boring his eyes into hers, as if trying o brain wash her. Tenten felt a glare threatening to break into her face.

"Well, look how that made you turn out," she spat, not able to keep herself polite anymore. ""It wouldn't hurt you to be a little positive, you know."

"How can you say that?" he asked, pushing himself away from the tree, turning fully towards her. "You don't know anything about me, and you can absolutely not know whether there's any point in being optimistic or not," she had obviously hit a sore spot, but she refused to let herself back away now.

"Of course I don't know anything, when you refuse to talk to me!"

"Stop wasting my time," he said, and shoved his hands into his pockets and walked into the rain, obviously headed home.

"You were the one that told me to wait here!" Tenten yelled after him, clenching her fists by her sides. Neji didn't even look like he heard her yelling. He simply walked away, keeping his head as tall as always. _It annoyed her to the very bones._

"Better hope you don't catch a cold then!" she tried one last time, but he remained unaffected. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, pouting at the stupid tree behind her.

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**A/N: **Please, tell me what you think, even though I'm a bad updater? (A)


	10. Chapter 10 Making Progress

**A/N: **I promised myself that I would update by the end of this week, and here I am! UPDATING! :D This chapter is on about idk... six or seven pages, so I hope you're happy now. The downside with such a long chapter is that it might be a little rushed - I'm not saying that it is, but it might be.

I just got this really good idea this morning, and I just had to write it down. So I hope you like it, and I'll be waiting for your reviews (y)

**Disclaiming all ownership. **

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**Chapter 10. Making progress **

Tenten stayed by the tree until the rain stopped. By the time it had faded completely she was sitting with her legs crossed on the ground, resting her tired back against the solid tree behind her. Brown eyes gazed at the sky as the dark clouds drifted off and revealed the comfortable, blue sky, and the warm, shining sun.

Thousands of rain drops still clung on the to strands of grass in front of her. In the new found sunlight they shone like diamonds, almost blinding her.

Tenten pulled her knees up against her chest and rested her chin on her knees. The words Neji had left her with still clung on to her mind, like the rain drops in front of her. _"Stop wasting my time…" _She narrowed her eyes.

"Pff… You're wasting your own time, you jerk," she mumbled to herself, eyes glued to the shiny grass, a frustrated look on her face.

She thought about Neji all the time, but not like she used to do back at the academy. No, now she was only thinking about what was going on inside his head, and she wondered if anyone had ever gotten close enough to learn his secretes, _and _if she would ever find a way to reach out to him.

Still deep in thought, she picked up one of her kunais and held it up in front of her face, lowering her knees in the process. Was her abilities as a ninja ever going to impress such a genius like Neji? She would have to work hard, probably twice as hard as _he _already did, if she ever wanted to be like him. Problem was; she didn't want to be like him. He was cold, stoic, and arrogant. She was mostly happy, welcoming and full of emotions all the time. So no, she didn't want to be like him, she just wanted to be with him. But for him to want her by his side she would have to be stronger.

With that conclusion in her head she rose to her feet and stretched her arms up above her head after sitting still so long. She adjusted her hair, and her pink shirt and started walking towards the village again, using the same route as Neji had done.

When Tenten finally reached the crowded streets in the village, she was startled by a familiar voice that called out her name. She spun around, and grinned when she spotted her black haired best friend, walking towards her.

"Ayo! I haven't seen you in ages!" Tenten exclaimed, and reached out to give her friend a hug. Ayo grinned widely, flashing her perfectly white teeth and hugged her back.

"More like two weeks," she corrected as they pulled away from each other. "How's it going with your sensei?" She asked, her girly face looking pretty humored by the memory of Tenten's new sensei.

"Well," Tenten thought for a moment, and lost some of her grin. "He's pretty special, but I think he is a good sensei… even though he make us do all these ridiculously tough exercises all the time. Seriously, every fiber of my body aches after his training sessions," Tenten said, unable to keep the grin off of her face for too long.

She was so glad to see Ayo again. After they had graduated from the Academy, they never got any time to hang out anymore. Tenten had almost been afraid that they would lose each other completely, but as Ayo started laughing at Tenten's description of Gai, she felt like they were back to what they used to be.

"I know what you're talking about. Gorou Sensei is pretty tough too," Ayo said, as the two of them started walking side by side. "Ryuu is pretty tiresome at times too," she added, glancing over at Tenten with a slight grimace on her face.

Tenten grinned, knowing that Ayo never would let herself twist her face too much. She couldn't stand the thought of looking ugly – not even for a second.

"Is he still –"

"A cocky bastard?" Ayo cut her off, smirking knowingly. "Oh, yeah," she said, when Tenten nodded. "He's always talking about how strong he is, and how he probably will end up saving the entire world," she giggled and looked up at the sky. "Were you out in the rain?"

"Huh?" Tenten asked, dumbstruck by the random question.

"You're completely soaked, dumbass," Ayo said, and grinned at the brunette. Tenten looked down at her still wet clothes.

"Oh, yeah," she mumbled. "Neji and I were training," she said with a sigh, and kept her gaze at the ground. Now Ayo was sure to start talking about Nej. Tenten caught herself wondering if Ayo had gone back to adoring him yet, or if she still was frightened by him.

"Hm…" Ayo stayed silent for some time, looking at the ground too. "You know… most people agree that he's kind of scary," she said with a quiet voice. Tenten rolled her eyes, and cleared her throat, ready to speak up, when Ayo continued. "I talked to some of the girls that were used to be in class with, and they all agreed that he's creepy. I mean, he is hot, it's just that he looks more dead than alive and that –"

"Ayo, please. I don't want to hear that rant right now," Tenten cut her off, knowing that she might be starting a very unnecessary argument.

"But – " Ayo was about to start again, when she seemed to realized something. Her eyes lit up like a pair of light bulbs. "Are you still crushing on him?" she asked with an excited grin, that only she herself could master.

Tenten felt her chest twist in pain by the question, but she knew that she didn't have that sort of feelings for him anymore. She was over that embarrassing part of her life now. _"I'm more mature now,"_ she told herself, and felt more confident.

"No, not anymore. He's not exactly what I imagined," Tenten answered truthfully, but still careful not to say too much. Ayo could make a "no" sound like a "yes" at any time.

"Hm," she kept a smug grin on her face, obviously just trying to make Tenten admit to something she didn't feel.

"Ayo, give it up," Tenten said, and nudged her friend in the ribs with her elbow.

"I haven't said anything," Ayo laughed, and nudged her back, giggling like always.

"You're so childish," Tenten laughed, and pushed her away before she got any chance to nudge her again. Ayo clumsily tripped over her own feet and landed on the ground with a surprised expression on her face.

"What the hell? Don't you know your own strength woman?" She exclaimed, and jumped up to her feet again, dusting off of herself. Tenten came to a halt and laughed out loud.

"You're the one who's so god damned clumsy," she said, and put her hands on her hips, grinning at Ayo as she straightened up again.

"Please, I bet it's the new training. You've gotten stronger, girl," Ayo grinned. Tenten simply waved it off, figuring she was just saying it to make her feel better about herself for some reason.

"Wow, did I miss the cat fight?" A new voice cut into their conversation. Both Ayo and Tenten looked up to see the blonde boy they both had graduated from the Academy with. Ryuu walked up to them with a self satisfied grin on his face. Ayo sighed, while Tenten simply smiled back at the boy.

"Here we go," Ayo mumbled, making sure only Tenten could hear it as Ryuu came to a halt in front of them.

"Tenten, where have you been?" he asked casually with his confident, boyish voice.

"Training," Tenten said, faking a tired face, silently underlining how tiresome the training had been.

"I see. Have you guys started doing any missions yet, then?" he asked smugly.

"Eh, no?" she answered, glancing over at Ayo, who seemed to be rolling her eyes at every word the boy said. "Have you?"

"Oh, yeah, recently. Haven't Ayo told you?" he asked, grinning at the black haired girl, who refused to meet his gaze. "Well, it was just some stupid little dog who had ran away, but still, it was a mission, and we got paid," he explained proudly and watched Tenten go a little paler.

They had gotten a mission already? That was beyond unfair! She wanted to do missions too! She could almost see herself wandering off to other villages, beating up bad guys and saving innocent lives. She had probably trained more during the last two weeks than both Ayo and Ryuu had done! She could nearly feel her face go green with jealousy.

"I think we're the first team from our year that's gotten a mission. Gorou Sensei believes in us –"

"Gai Sensei believes in us too, you know," Tenten said drily, and crossed her arms over her chest. She felt like Ryuu was stepping on her pride, with _intension_. Ryuu just grinned even wider. He looked like a blonde snake.

"Stop bragging, Ryuu," Ayo said, and clenched her jaws together.

"Well, excuse me," he said, putting his hands up in defeat. "But anyway, Ayo, Gorou Sensei sent me to get you. He wants to have a team-meeting," he said, glancing at Tenten as if to check her reaction to his message. She kept her face indifferent. She wouldn't just forgive someone who looked down upon her, something she was sure Ryuu did.

"_What a weirdo,"_ she though sourly.

"Whaaat?" Ayo exclaimed, and dropped her arms. "Can I never get a break from you guys?" She threw her head back with a frustrated grimace – not really a grimace, but enough to see that she was unpleased - and visually forced herself to move forward.

Ryuu waved at Tenten, before he turned to leave. Tenten didn't respond to him at all, but forced herself to grin at Ayo as she looked back at Tenten over her shoulder.

"Sorry, I'll see you later," she said, and smiled tiredly, before she walked off after Ryuu.

Tenten returned to glare at Ryuu's back as he walked away.

* * *

Neji was making his way up to the training grounds, like he had been doing every day since they had graduated. He was knowingly carrying a devil's glare on his face, but he couldn't get it away. He was sick of just training and training and getting no where.

He was still a little annoyed at Tenten for trying to peer inside his personal secrets, but he was prepared to let it slide, _if _she did nothing to annoy him today.

He told himself to be a leader, to be professional, and most of all to be strong. He had to repeat the last part to himself when he walked up to their usual training spot and he saw his over-excited, green clad, spandex wearing sensei already standing there, grinning from ear to ear. Neji gritted his teeth.

"Good morning, Neji!" Gai exclaimed, and gave him a thumbs up for some unknown reason. Neji rose his eyebrows higher than any normal person had ever done before at his Sensei's childish behavior, and briefly wondered what trauma the man must have gone through to end up like this.

"Good morning," he replied, simply because he was good mannered. He came to a halt at a pretty decent distance from Gai and crossed his arms over his chest, as he prepared himself to wait for the others to show up.

"It's good to see that you're just on time as always – as for the other two; I will have to give them a lecture about the youthfulness of being punctual!"

Neji sighed and stared longingly at the path he had come from. He hoped Tenten would show up soon, he couldn't stand being alone with their sensei. There was a limit to how much nonsense he could take on his own.

As if on clue, Neji suddenly picked up her chakra not too far away. He wasn't very good at recognizing chakra yet, she was probably only minutes away, which wasn't impressing when he knew that he should have been capable of noticing her at a longer distance. He would have to train on that.

The slim girl dumped down in between Neji and Gai, from the tree Neji had chosen as his kind-of-favorite-place to meditate after their daily training. She panted slightly and had obviously been in a hurry.

"Sorry, I'm late, Sensei," she breathed and straightened up.

"Tardiness is a shame, Tenten! Remember that tomorrow morning so we'll not have to wait for you again!" the green clad man roared, and walked up to the twelve year old girl and petted her head. Neji looked at her, secretly humored, as she stumbled over her feet by the strength Gai used to pet her head. It was like he was trying to hammer her down into the earth.

He chuckled lightly, and put his hands on his hips. "Now, my students, does anyone know what's taking Lee so much time?"

"He probably just overslept," Tenten said, as she rubbed her head with a pained grimace on her usually happy face.

Neji turned to look at the path as he saw Rock Lee running towards them. His legs spun like propellers under him, and his eyes seemed to be even bigger than usual. When he made it over to the three, they could finally hear what he was saying/screaming.

"GAI SENSEI! I'M SO SORRY I'M LATE!"

Neji sighed and took a step back from the loud mouthed loser. What was his deal?

"Don't be so loud in the morning, Lee," Neji said with a low voice, glaring at the boy who already struggled to stay on his feet, even before the training had begun.

"LEE! Do you know how late you are!?" Gai exclaimed, and pointed at the sun, as if he thought that Lee knew what time it was by looking at the sky.

"Forgive me, Sensei!" Lee begged, and crashed down on his knees.

"There is no forgiveness for the tardy ones, Lee!" Gai roared, and glanced over at Tenten in the process, who impatiently stared at him deadpan. "Tomorrow you better be on time, or so help me I will train you three so hard that you won't be able to sleep afterwards!" Neji narrowed his eyes in annoyance.

"That doesn't make any sense," he said, his voice sounding almost muffled through his gritted teeth.

"I promise I'll be on time from now on, Sensei!" Lee yelled, with his fists firmly placed over his heart.

"Can we get started already?" Neji snapped, not able to restrain himself any longer.

"Ah, Neji! Impatient as always!" Gai roared, and for a second he looked like he was about to go and pet his head too. Neji glared so hard that the man didn't have to think twice before he drew his hand back, and continued his talking like nothing had happened.

"Today my students, I'll be lecturing you in the ways of never giving up!" Like every morning his announcement was met with silence. Neji stood far away with his arms crossed, a never fading skeptic look plastered on his face. Tenten blinked at the Sensei, confused at his choice of words, while Lee was nearly bursting with excitement. "And what better way to train your will power, than to run twenty laps around the _entire village!?_"

Tenten groaned loudly, Lee leaped to the air and started cheering in excitement, while Neji had to restrain himself from slamming his head into the tree behind him. It was beyond tempting.

"Follow me students! And do not fall behind!" Gai yelled, and ran off at a speed they all knew they couldn't keep up with for very long.

* * *

After five laps Gai was getting bored and he started yelling ridiculous warnings and orders at them. Neji was glaring daggers, bullets and nuclear bombs at the crazy man that was jumping around in front of them.

"IT'S AN AMBUSH! GET DOWN!" Gai yelled.

All three of them were more than willing to lay down on the ground. Neji could hear Lee throw himself to the ground behind him, completely exhausted. Neji panted heavily through his gritted teeth himself, with the taste of blood filling his mouth.

He glanced at Tenten who was panting twice as hard as him, but not nearly as much as Lee. Her face was covered in dirt and sweat, something he was sure his was too. He was surprised to see how focused she still was. Her eyes were glued to the man in front of them, and as he ordered them up and running again, she just bit her lip and got to her feet equally with Neji. He was surprised, and ended up checking on her now and then as they ran, curious to how long she would be able to keep it up.

"UP IN THE TREES!" Gai roared at the sixth lap, and that's when they lost Lee. Neji and Tenten both managed to clumsily get up on the high branches, but as Lee tried to jump, he collapsed on the ground in stead.

Neji was about to continue anyway, but saw the helpless expression on Lee's red face, and couldn't help but feeling like he had to stop for him. Tenten continued to the next branch without noticing that Neji had stopped, but was quick to look over her shoulder.

"Tenten," Neji panted as their eyes met. She stopped immediately, and spotted Lee laying face down on the ground.

"This is ridiculous…" Neji panted and jumped off of the branch, so exhausted that he nearly lost his balance when his feet landed on the ground. He heard Tenten jump down behind him and falling to the ground in the process. He ignored her and walked over to where Lee lay.

"Lee, are you alright?" he asked still out of breath, as he came to a halt by Lee's lifeless body. Tenten stumbled forwards and kneeled down besides Lee, so she could turn him over on his back.

"Is he unconscious?" she asked. Neji could almost not hear her over their heavy breathing, but understood the question nevertheless.

"Yes," he said shortly, and looked up in time to see Gai jumping down to stand in front of them, almost not panting at all.

""It seems like that was enough for today," he said, not so loudly for once. He shoved Tenten to the side, and knelt down besides Lee. "He has just passed out. It's probably nothing to worry about, but I'll take him to the hospital nevertheless," Gai said, and picked Lee up in his arms and stood up. He mercilessly threw Lee onto his back and started walking off towards the village, waving a hand at Neji and Tenten.

"You two go get some water! Same time and place tomorrow!"

Neji stared after his sensei for some seconds, his mouth agape as he struggled to regain his breath. He was so tired and exhausted that he couldn't even work up the strength to glare at him anymore.

Tenten lay on the ground by now, her arms stretched out, and her chest moving up and down with her heavy breathing. She looked over at him with tired eyes, and frowned.

"How the hell can you still stand?" she breathed, disbelievingly.

"I can't," Neji admitted and finally allowed himself to sink down to the ground. He sat down with his legs crossed and leaned forwards putting his hands to the ground. The taste of blood, tortured muscles, dizziness, he had it all. He even had problems with focusing his eyes! Why did Gai always insist on making them run so much?

After five minutes both of them had managed to get their breathing under control, but it was still far to early for either of them to move.

"I better be twice as strong as I was today when I wake up tomorrow," Tenten mumbled, staring at the sky.

Neji looked up at her. She was still laying on her back with her arms and legs spread out around her. Neji himself had started meditating, knowing that just laying there wouldn't get him anywhere, but Tenten seemed to like it a lot.

"Ayo and Ryuu's team are doing missions already," she said when Neji remained silent. He frowned at this new information.

"That's probably just some boring missions requested by some rich old ladies," Neji commented, and closed his eyes to continue his meditation. Five seconds passed, before Tenten's girly voice broke through his concentration again.

"But Gai haven't even mentioned missions yet," Tenten said. Neji could almost hear a pout in her voice, and didn't need to open his eyes to know what kind of expression she had on her face.

"Don't tell me you want to do those missions anyway?" he asked, and opened one eye to look at her. She glanced at him from where she was laying, but remained silent.

"Gai is probably training us this hard right now so that we can be strong enough to do real missions when we start doing missions, instead of doing those humiliating missions that your friends are doing right now," he said, surprised by himself when he realized that he had just been supportive to Gai's training techniques. He had to open his eyes to check if he was dreaming or something.

He saw Tenten's lips curl up into a smile, but he had absolutely no idea about what she was smiling for. He just waved it off and closed his eyes to continue his precious meditation.

They stayed on the same spot on the training field for the next hour. Neji was taken aback when he realized that he was enjoying her silent company.

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**A/N: **even though its a bit sudden, I like this ending. But what do I know? I've been writing this all day, and I've caught a cold! Let me just tell you that writing on a laptop while sneezing every five minute is not easy. The screen is pretty clean by now though. So, don't kill me, please :3


	11. Chapter 11 Secretes

**A/N:** Hihihihih, what a great updater I suddenly became. I don't know how long I can keep this up, but right now I have a lot of easter time on my hands and I have (FINALLY) so much inspiration for this story! Yeeey!

This chapter is entirely in Neji's POV, and I'm pretty satisfied with it too, but you know, I'm never too confident when I upload my chapter. ^^"

**Disclaming all ownership. **

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**Chapter 11. Secretes **

"What were you talking about?" Neji asked, not able to keep the question inside any longer. Maaya looked up at him from the book she was reading, her eyes spilling her confusion.

"What, Neji?" she asked, sitting up in the couch.

"What were you and Hiashi Sama talking about this afternoon?" he asked more properly and sat down on the far end of the couch his mother were seated on. The big TV were on, silently showing the news channel even though no one was watching. Maaya thought for some time, glancing over at the TV. Neji knew that she was considering her words carefully.

"Your uncle simply wanted to know how you were doing. He does care about you, you know," Maaya said, eyeing her son warily. She looked like she was waiting for an explosion.

Neji remained unaffected. Of course she wanted him to think that his uncle cared for him. Too bad the truth was that his uncle didn't give a crap about him or the entire branch family, _even if it was his own brother._ The only reason to why the branch family was still around was that the main family were a bunch of arrogant cowards that could not take care of them selves, and needed the lesser worth branch family to protect them.

"Yeah, right," he mumbled, and sighed. "What were you talking about?" he asked again, his blank eyes staring into his mother's blue ones.  
"I told you. Hiashi Sama wanted to know how you were doing now that you have graduated from the Academy and all. He suggested that we could arrange a meeting with your new sensei, so that we could discuss your training with him," she said, putting the book away, knowing that this was not going to be settled without a discussion.

Neji felt a cold wave rush down his spine. He tried to imagine how the meeting with his new, crazy sensei and his mother and uncle would turn out, and realized that it could only result in catastrophe. Hiashi would never accept Gai as Neji's sensei, even though he was a simple member of the branch family.

"He has nothing to do with my training," Neji spat and turned to watch the TV. His mother frowned, not sure what to say.

"Neji, he is the leader of our clan…" she started but trailed off when Neji turned to glare at her.

"I don't care. He's got nothing to do with my life, and he certainly have no say in what kind of training my Sensei will teach me," he said, and stood up from the couch, ready to leave. He never liked to argue with his mother, but sometimes she acted so helpless and weak that he couldn't help it. Why could she never stand up to Hiashi? He was the very reason to why her husband was dead, for crying out loud!

"Neji, please don't be this way," she begged, and rubbed her temples tiredly. How many times had they gone through this now? "We have to listen to the main branch, that's just the way this family works. Someday you will have to learn to accept that," she said and stood up.

"Did you know that when you married my father?" Neji asked, his voice completely monotonous. Maaya froze for a second. Suddenly her face looked a little paler than before. She cleared her throat and stepped closer to her son.

"Of course I did," she said, and reached out to put a hand on Neji's shoulder. She was surprised when he didn't jerk away from her touch. "But I was willing to accept that to be with him, and to later have you," she said, and forced a smile onto her face.

"Did you know he was going to die for the main branch too?" Neji asked coldly, and without waiting for her reply he jerked away and turned to leave, leaving Maaya frozen to the spot.

He didn't know that each time he acted this mean and cold to her, he was mentally sticking a dagger into her heart.

* * *

Neji released a breath he didn't know he had been holding when he excited the living room and headed towards the courtyard where the Hyuuga family members met to train everyday. One would always have to pass the courtyard to reach the main entrance of the compound, but Neji usually lingered by the wooden fences, under the ceiling, to watch the older and more experienced ninjas spar. Today was no different.

Hitoshi Hyuuga and Nobu Hyuuga were in the middle of their weekly spar. They were distant cousins, both in their early sixties. Hitoshi had always been quite tolerant to Neji, while Nobu was the exact opposite. Neji had always had a feeling that Nobu truly, and passionately hated him for some reason. He didn't know why though.

Most importantly about the two, they were both member of the main branch.

Neji leant against the wooden fence, and watched the two spar. They moved skillfully, both of them having perfected their chosen Hyuuga techniques several years ago. The twelve year old boy studied them as they sparred, hoping to learn something.

After two minutes something finally caught Neji's attention. Hitoshi spun around and, using two fingers, he simply poked Nobu two times. One time on his right arm, and one time on Nobu's right shoulder. It didn't look like a very forceful move, but Nobu jerked away nevertheless, and put his hand on his shoulder, grimacing at his cousin.

"Hitoshi! I thought we'd agree on _not _blocking each others chakra point during training," he said, rubbing the two points where Hitoshi had poked him.

Neji frowned, and leaned more over the fence, as if trying to get a better look at Nobu's arm. Did he just say that Hitoshi had blocked his chakra points? Was that possible by such a simple move? And how on earth did Hitoshi know where to poke?

Hitoshi broke into a self satisfied laugh and put his hands on his hips.

"Forgive me, cousin, I got carried away when you didn't cheat for once," Hitoshi said, and adjusted his robes. "Are you alright?"

"Of course I am. I'm a jounin – not some weak little genin," Nobu said, and sent Neji a short glare from the corner of his nearly blank eye. Neji snorted and rolled his eyes. Sometimes the man acted more like he _was_ a genin. "What is that boy doing over there?" he asked Hitoshi, loud enough for Neji to hear.

Hitoshi glanced over his shoulder with a smile on his face and winked at Neji, who simply nodded his head in reply.

"He's not doing any harm, Nobu," Hitoshi said, dropping the laugh. "Give him a chance."

"I think we're done for today. I need to heal these chakra points, thanks to you," Nobu said, and smirked at his cousin, before the black haired Hyuuga left the courtyard, and disappeared into the doors of the main house.

Hitoshi huffed and turned around to face Neji who was about to leave too.

"Neji," he said before he managed to sneak away. Neji stopped dead in his tracks, and forced himself to turn back around. "You sure know how to annoy him," Hitoshi said, and grinned, something that was slightly uncommon for the usually arrogant Hyuuga family members.

"I didn't do anything," Neji said, and shrugged, going back to lean his back on the fence, facing the door he had come from. Hitoshi walked up to him and leant back on the fence as well.

"No team-training today?" Hotoshi asked casually, looking down at Neji with kind, lavender eyes.

"No," Neji said, still facing the doors to the branch house. "For the first time in three weeks we have the day off. I never thought I'd be happy to not train for an entire day."

"So your new sensei is a little though?" Hitoshi asked, determined to start a conversation with the antisocial boy.

"He's pretty damn eager to get us in shape," Neji answered, glancing up at Hitoshi for a split second, surprised to feel eager to tell him more about his new sensei. "I'm not entirely sure if I agree to his ways of training, but this morning I woke up feeling…" Neji paused, not sure how to put it. "I felt a little different. I think I've gotten stronger," he finished, resisting the urge to flex his biceps to check if they'd gotten any bigger.

"We should train together once. I could teach you a trick or two," Hitoshi said, still grinning. "Would you like that?" He asked and put an encouraging hand on the young boy's shoulder. Neji was silent for a while, causing the smile on Hitoshi's face to fade slightly.

"Sure," he finally said, making Hitoshi release a thankful sigh. He squeezed Neji's shoulder before he pulled his hand back.

"I'm looking forward to it, I've never seen our own genius in action before," Hitoshi said, before he waved his hand, and turned to leave. "I'll see you later boy," he called over his shoulder and headed for the entrance to the main house.

"Hitoshi sama!" Neji called after him as he remembered something. He pushed himself off of the fence. Hitoshi spun around, a surprised look on his face.

"What, Neji?" he asked, blinking at the determined look on Neji's face.

"What was that technique you used to block Nobu sama's chakra points just now?" Neji asked, his lavender eyes burning with curiosity. Hitoshi frowned and sighed.

"Neji, I'm sorry but I can't tell you that," he said, a sad look on his face. The spark that had been in Neji's eyes died as he realized why Hitoshi couldn't tell him about the technique. He wasn't allowed to tell him about it. It was a restricted area for the _branch family_.

"Oh," was all he could say at first, before he pulled himself together. "Fine, just forget about it then," he said, and stalked off towards the exit, eager to get away from the sympathetic look on the older man's face.

"Neji – " Hitoshi started, but Neji turned to cut him off.

"Don't worry, I'll just figure it out on my own," he said, and smirked over his shoulder, not able to be mad at such a kind man. Hitoshi had always been kind to Neji, and he was not going to allow himself to act completely ungrateful of that.

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Half an hour later Neji was seated on top of an old concrete building, near the Hokage Tower in the village. He sat with his left leg dangling over the edge of the flat roof, and the other leg pulled up so he could rest his arm and chin on his knee. His thoughts kept drifting off to the technique Hitoshi had used, making his curiosity bubble under his skin.

He had memorized the two points Hitoshi had hit by now, and had already tried to poke his own shoulder, but without any luck. He knew that the human body contained several points called chakra points. He had already read that in some of the elder's poorly hidden scrolls. Now he realized that if he wanted to learn more about this technique he would have to get his hands on the secrete scrolls that were hidden somewhere in the main families library.

_How the hell am I going to get in there? _he mentally asked himself, as an even deeper frown formed on his face. He knew that he was allowed into the library – that was not a problem, but how was he going to get to the hidden scrolls? He didn't even know if the elders kept them in the library at all.

His head jerked to the side as he sensed a familiar chakra coming closer. He looked down at the street and spotted Tenten walking towards the house he was sitting on. He briefly noticed that she wasn't wearing her forehead protector.

It was evening, and the sun was on its way down behind the hills in the horizon, casting a yellow light over Konoha. At this time of the day the streets were almost completely abandoned. So what was she doing still out, and alone?

When he noticed that she was wearing a sleeveless shirt, an idea popped up in his mind. He dropped his leg over the edge and leaned forward putting his elbows on his thighs.

"Tenten!" he called, hoping to get her attention. In the matter of seconds her brown big eyes looked up and met with his. She looked a little puzzled at first, but as she recognized him she broke into a grin.

"Hi, there!" she answered, stopping in the shadow of the gray building. "What are you doing up there?" she asked. Neji didn't care to answer, he was to caught up in his plan.

"Come up here," he said, and smiled at the surprised look on her face.

She took a moment to look the building up and down, considering the easiest way up. Neji watched her as she pumped chakra to her feet and started climbing her way up, using the window sills and the pipes to make her way upwards. In a matter of seconds she swung herself over the edge of the roof and released a self satisfied breath.

Neji swung his left leg over so that he had one leg of each side of the edge. Tenten sat down in front of him, crossing her legs in stead.

"What are you doing here by yourself?" she asked again. Neji noticed that she was blinking a little too much, and wondered if it was because he was making eye contact with her.

"Thinking," he answered truthfully, and glanced down at the point on her lower arm that he had memorized as the first point out of the two he had observed. "I was wondering if you could help me with something," he started, pausing to await her answer.

"Ehm, sure," she said, pushing some of her dark bangs behind her ear.

"There's this technique I'm trying to figure out, and I just wanted to check something," he explained, making sure not to let her in on any details. She looked a little confused, but nodded her head anyway. "Give me your hand," he requested, and held out his palm in front of her. Her eyes widened for a second before she slowly obeyed and placed her hand in his open palm.

Without hesitating he closed his fingers around her hand, and pulled her a little closer to him. Without another word he formed his other hand like Hitoshi had done, and pressed the memorized point below her elbow, making sure to use a little force.

"Ow!" She tore he hand away from his grasp and held her arm tightly against her chest, looking shocked. "What was that for?" she exclaimed, pouting at him with insulted eyes.

Neji couldn't keep the satisfied grin off of is face. "Sorry, I just needed to see if I had memorized the right spot," he explained and motioned for her to give him her hand again.

"Don't do that again, it hurt," she said sourly and placed her hand in his palm again. Neji looked at the point he had pressed and grinned as he saw the sore, red mark forming around the exact point he had memorized.

"Great. You finally smile and that's because your hurting me," Tenten mumbled sarcastically, and took her hand back again.

"I'm sorry, I won't do it again," he said and looked her in the eye.

"Care to tell me what you just did? And why it hurt so much?" she asked, raising her left eyebrow. Neji noticed that she was pretty annoyed at him, which kind of humored him – but only a little.

"I shouldn't," he said shortly and moved his gaze towards the Hokage Tower behind Tenten's head.

"Why not?" she asked disbelievingly.

"It is a clan secrete," he said.

"Please, tell me?" she asked again, more curious this time.

"I can't, Tenten."

"I won't tell anyone," she continued. Neji sighed in irritation, wondering why she wouldn't take no for an answer.

"I'll tell you when I've mastered the technique, okay?" he tried to compromise. Someone had told him once that a woman would only listen to a compromise, but he couldn't remember who.

"Fine," she said, and crossed her arms over her chest. Obviously she didn't like being kept outside. "I'll get it out of you sooner or later anyway," she mumbled and grinned when Neji eyed her suspiciously.

"Yeah right."

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**A/N:** now that was kinda sweet, don't you think? (please like it, please like it!)


	12. Chapter 12 The strenght of cooperation

**A/N: **Alright, this wasn't supposed to get an entire chapter for itself, but turns out it was a bigger part of the story than I first thought. So I have to warn you; this chapter contains zero romance... And that sucks, but we have to face it; getting close to Neji is going to take Tenten a lot of time, and there can't be a lot of romance before she has brought him out of the shadow, right? yeah.. I'm pretty impatient to get to the good parts myself. ^^"

Now... I'd like to thank you guys for reviewing so wonderfully much on chapter 10, it really made me feel better, and I don't sneeze all the time anymore, so maybe you healed me? I dunnu.

And of course thanks for the reviews to my last chapter, even though I nearly got a heart attack when I woke up in the morning and had received no more than one review. Luckily I got two more, but seriously. I was so ready to just dig a hole in the ground and bury myself alive.

So thank you Rukia63541, Ehmi and , you guys saved my life! (y)

**Disclamier: I don't own anything. Except my half good writing skills. **

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**Chapter 12. The strength of cooperation**

Tenten walked swiftly out of her house, leaving a hurried note to her parents. It wasn't really necessary as her parents had gotten used to her not being home when they woke up during the past three weeks. She was glad that they didn't argue with her new sensei, but sometimes she wished they would just tell her that he was crazy for making her get up so early in the morning, only to send her home from training in the evening feeling like a walking corpse.

She locked the door behind her and jumped easily over the white gates. The sun was shining brightly down upon the sleeping village, but the cool morning air had yet to warm up.

She walked silently through the village, but for once she was not headed towards the training fields. Yesterday, Gai had told them to meet him extra early by the village gates. Of course; being the over dramatic man he was, he refused to tell them why, but Tenten was already mentally prepared to run a billion laps around the village, just in case.

She adjusted her regular hairstyle while walking one last time. She didn't want to waste time on that when they were training. She was probably over thinking it, but something told her that she had to push her girly tendencies aside when she was training with Neji and Lee… especially Neji. She had to be as though as she could to impress them.

Five minutes later she spotted the huge gates. She was probably some minutes early – or she _had_ to be early seeing as her sensei wasn't even there yet. She smiled gratefully. Then at least Gai wouldn't yell at her for being tardy.

She stopped by the huge gates, glancing over at the booth were two male ninja's sat, both looking like they'd just crawled out of the grave.

"_Good to know that I'm not the only one who's tired this early in the morning," _she thought to herself, and yawned tiredly.

"Hey, girl!" someone called. Tenten's head jerked up to see one of said guards waving at her. "You're one of Maito Gai's students, aren't you?" he asked loudly and grinned lazily. Tenten blinked at him as she saw the other guy who remained silent chuckle lightly.

"Yeah?" she muttered, raising one eyebrow.

"I'll be surprised if she survives one year with his training," he said silently to the guy besides him, a humored grin on his face. She wasn't supposed to, but Tenten heard what he said, and clenched her fists by her sides. Was he suggesting that she was too weak to be trained by Gai?

She blew some dark strands of hair out of her eyes, and glared at them, knowing it was all because she was a girl. Why the hell did people still think like that? If a male ninja did something great, he was a hero, but if a kunoichi did something great, it was forgotten in the matter of days.

"_Don't say anything," _she told her self and turned to face the village instead happy to see the Hyuuga genius walking towards her, hands in his pockets as usual. His features carried no signs of sleep or what so ever. He was always so awake.

"You're early," he commented without saying "hi" as he stopped in front of her.

"I didn't feel like getting yelled at this early in the morning," she said, and smiled innocently at him, knowing that he knew what she was talking about.

"Hn," he breathed, and glanced over at the two guards who still were talking silently to each other, occasionally glancing towards the two genin. Tenten wondered if they still were talking about her.

"They don't think I'll survive a year as Gai sensei's student," she said silently. "Because I'm a girl," she added and glared at them, eyes filled with annoyance. Neji's face stayed indifferent, and for some seconds Tenten thought that he wouldn't even care to say anything. She had hoped that he would stand up for her.

"That's ridiculous," he finally said, still looking at the two. Tenten couldn't help but to grin in relief, knowing that his support meant more to her than it probably should.

"Hey, guys!" Lee yelled from the other side of the street, waving his hand at them. Neji just snorted, and took a step back, as if to make space for him to stand with them. Tenten grinned, and waved her hand back at him.

"Hi, Lee," she greeted as he came to a halt in front of them. He was about to ask where Gai Sensei was, but just as he opened his mouth, a "poof" sound was heard behind them, and out of a cloud of smoke stepped their sensei, dressed in his regular green clothing.

"Good morning students!" he said, and spun around into a "good guy pose", thumbs up and teeth shining like stars.

"Gai Sensei!" Lee exclaimed, as all three turned to face him, Tenten standing in the middle.

"I'm glad to see that all of you made it in time today! There is no excuse for being tardy, you know," he said, putting his massive hands on his hips, gazing over the three with pride in his eyes.

Tenten glanced at Neji who just stared at the green clad man with narrowed eyes as usual. She wondered if he had settled with Gai as his sensei yet, or if he hated being on this team. It was so hard to tell. The thought of him disliking to be a part of their team made her stomach twist uncomfortably.

"Now you're probably all _dying_ to know what kind of brilliant plan I have for this day – and _why_ I told you to meet me here, by the _village gates_!" Gai liked emphasizing his words.

Tenten turned away from Neji as he almost turned to find her staring at him. She pretended that she had been focusing on Gai Sensei all the time, even though he probably knew that she had been looking at him.

"Please tell us, Gai Sensei!" Lee exclaimed, his eyes burning with anticipation. Tenten looked up to find her sensei glowing with the same anticipation and excitement that he and Lee seemed to share at any time.

"Today is the day that I finally get to teach you guys the art of _walking on water!_" he boomed, almost causing the ground to shake beneath them.

Just as he said it the entire situation of their team was turned upside down. Lee, who had been so enthusiastic and good spirited during the three weeks they had been team 9, totally lost his spark.

Tenten was so relived that they were not going to train their speed for once that she didn't notice at first, but the second her eyes caught the sight of Lee's bowed head, her grin faded and was replaced by worry.

Lee would not be able to learn how to walk on water. It didn't matter how much he tried, or how much he wished he could master the different techniques, he was still completely unable to use ninjutsu. Tenten bit her lip nervously.

Neji stood silently on Tenten's right side, with a satisfied smirk on his face, probably just eager to learn the new technique. Tenten looked at him to see if he had noticed Lee's change in attitude too, but he didn't seem to care too much about it. He just glanced over her head once, and then he put his eyes back on Gai, as if saying "whatever" with his entire body language.

Tenten narrowed her eyes, and turned back to Lee. "Lee," she whispered, not daring to cut off her sensei once he got talking again. Lee looked up to meet her eyes, and made her chest cringe by looking like a little lost puppy. At a loss of words she simply smiled reassuringly at him, a silent promise that he was going to be okay. She was reviled to see that it seemed to lift his spirit slightly.

"Now, we are going to travel by foot to a lake I like to call: "The Freezing Lake of Endurance!" Gai announced loudly, and laughed a confident laugh, obviously very satisfied with that incredibly lame name. "We will travel like real ninja's, using the trees!" he said, and pointed at the massive trees outside the village gates. "The journey will take about two hours at a normal pace. Who can tell me how we can reach our destination faster?" He flashed his teeth in a cheeky grin, and eyed all three of his students expectantly.

Tenten bit her teeth together, suddenly feeling twice as tired as she had been just a minute ago. _"Here it comes_…" she thought helplessly to herself.

"Gai Sensei! We could travel at top speed!" Lee said, suddenly some of the old spark returned to his eyes.

"Wonderful idea, Lee!" Gai exclaimed and stroke another "good guy pose".

Tenten groaned, not able to keep it inside. Why did she have to end up with the one sensei that was completely obsessed with training our speed? Everything had to be at top speed, all the time! And all Tenten wanted to know was _why?_

"Exactly what is wrong with traveling at _normal _speed?" Neji asked with an irritated voice from Tenten's right. She eyed him carefully, half expecting him to start an argument with their sensei.

"Neji, there is something in this world you have to accept, and that is that _no one_ likes a late ninja! Not even if he is a Hyuga," Gai said, and grinned knowingly down at the boy, obviously satisfied with the annoyed look on Neji's face.

Tenten swallowed nervously as she noticed Neji's hands clenching into fists besides her.

"Alright kids! Let's go!" Gai exclaimed, and ran through the gates, leaving the three genin literarily in the dust.

"Let's go!" Lee yelled, and ran off too.

Tenten felt a small butterfly in her belly as she noticed that she and Neji both lingered by the gates for some seconds, sighing in union.

"Come on," he muttered, and started running after them. As always Tenten didn't hesitate in following him. They jumped up in the trees, and tried to keep up with their energy boosted sensei who jumped from branch to branch with ease. Tenten clenched her jaws in concentration, knowing that Gai probably could go even faster than this too.

Even though lee couldn't use chakra to jump more easily he was doing an impressive job. Tenten glanced at him now and then, afraid that he might collapse, or fall off a branch again, like he usually ended up doing during their previous training, but he didn't. Tenten was surprised to see that he was in fact doing great.

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They had been traveling through the trees at _Gai's top speed_ in one and a half hour now, and it was starting to take its toll on all of them. Neji had reached a point where he had to concentrate on his every move, so he wouldn't fall off a branch and humiliate himself completely. He had noticed long ago that Tenten was struggling a little more than him. She had nearly fallen to the ground a few times already, but he still found it unnecessary to help her.

"Ow!" Lee grunted out in pain, and with the sound of breaking branches he was the first to fall. Neji clenched his jaws in annoyance.

"Lee!" Tenten cried out in worry, and stopped immediately, almost falling off the branch she was standing on in the process. She jumped to the ground and landed skillfully besides Lee who was trying to get to his feet again, an embarrassed but mostly exhausted look on his face.

"Are you alright?" Neji heard her ask. Tenten didn't understand that Lee probably was suffering in humiliation right now, and that she only made it worse by worrying so much about him. He huffed out arrogantly, and stopped too, waiting for his team mates to get back up again.

Their green clad sensei looked back at them over his shoulder, but obviously couldn't bring himself to wait for them, and continued forwards.

"He's not waiting for us," Neji muttered, loud enough for the two on the ground to hear. Tenten looked up at him, her brown eyes looking a little stressed out.

"Tenten, I'm fine," Lee said with a shaky voice and tried to stand up. Neji noticed how his legs were shaking and frowned. He had obviously hurt his left leg, judging by the dark bruise that was forming on it just above his ankle.

This was taking too long. Gai had disappeared between the trees by now, and they were wasting time waiting for Lee to recover after a fall? _No way…_

"Tenten, take his arm over you shoulders," he ordered, and jumped down from the branch he was standing on, landing right besides Lee. As Tenten obeyed Neji took Lee's other am over his shoulders, ignoring his half hearted protests, and supported his team mates weight. "Let's go," he said, and a moment later they were up in the branches again, moving forward at almost the same pace as before.

Lee had a pained expression on his face, a mixture of both embarrassment and gratitude for what his team mates were doing. Neji couldn't help but to feel slightly bad for him though, if he had been the one needing carrying he would most certainly rather die than traveling like this.

"Neji, we don't even know where we're going anymore," Tenten pointed out between panting. Neji glanced over at her, unsure if the plan he was working out was a good idea or not.

"Okay, stop for a second," he said after a moment of thinking. They both came to a halt on the next branch. Neji let go of Lee's arm, giving Tenten his full weight to support.

"How are you doing, Lee?" she asked, smiling at the black haired boy. Neji remained expressionless, once again thanking every force on earth that he wasn't the one in Lee's position.

Neji stood still facing the direction he was sure Gai had been headed. He cracked his knuckles, preparing himself for one perfected hand sign. With all the concentration he could master he closed his eyes and slammed his palms together.

"Byakugan," he voiced the technique out loud, and with chakra visually racing under his skin and into his eyes he opened them, suddenly able to see everything.

"Neji..!" Tenten gasped, probably thinking something was wrong with him because of all the veins that suddenly came to view with the byakugan technique.

"Quiet," he ordered, keeping his hands in front of him, struggling to keep the byakugan activated.

"Okay," he breathed as he dropped his hands and closed his eyes, feeling the familiar headache and dizziness come crawling over him. He had yet to perfect his byakugan. He couldn't even hold it activated in a full minute yet, because of the headache that occurred every time he used it. It felt like his eyes were going to burst out of the back of his head.

"Neji?" Lee's voice sounded confused. With a pained expression on his usually stoic face, Neji rubbed his temples, trying hard to calm the throbbing pain.

"He's right ahead of us. He has made it to the lake already," he said his voice just a little shaky.

"What?" Tenten asked, looking completely lost.

"How do you know that?" Lee stuttered, his arm still supported over Tenten's shoulders. "What was that technique you just used?"

Neji sighed impatiently, but knew that the best solution was to just tell them.

"The byakugan is my family's bloodline limit, which means that every Hyuga can use it." he said. There was no way he was going to waste more time just sitting around, so he grabbed Lee's arm and motioned for them to get moving again before he continued. Tenten took a better grip around Lee's arm and on Neji's signal they jumped off the branch and onto the next.

"The byakugan enables us a vision of almost 360 , and to see the human's chakra system," he said referring to his family, not bothering going too much into the details as they were regaining the speed form before. "Basically we can see about everything."

"But Gai is probably miles away by now! And you're telling me you could see him?" Tenten asked in disbelief.

"He's just half a mile away by now," Neji corrected, and picked up his pace, making Tenten struggle a little with Lee's weight. He didn't fail to notice the admiration in both his team mates eyes as he told them about the technique, but decided to leave it there. They didn't need to hear everything about it now.

Ten minutes later the trio dumped down on the ground, finally out of the tick forest and out under the clear, blue sky, by the lake Gai had been talking about. Gai stood there grinning with tears in his eyes as he saw Neji and Tenten supporting Lee until they reached the ground and crashed down, all of them happy to finally have a break.

Neji was surprised that he actually had to sit down. He usually managed to stand up at least a little longer than the other two.

"You three…" Gai interrupted his thoughts. Neji looked up to see him drying his eyes on the back of his hand. "You make me so proud! You have finally found the true strength in cooperation!" he boomed clenching his fists dramatically in front of him. "Lee! Did you hurt yourself?" Gai asked, kneeling down in front of them to have a better look at Lee's bruised leg.

"Yes, Sensei, but I'm completely okay by now," Lee assured him, crossing his legs to hide the bruise. Neji caught himself wondering if he really was okay, or if he was just faking so he wouldn't seem so weak. After all they had been forced to carry him to get to the lake.

"Okay then," Gai muttered and stood up again, hovering over them with the sun shining brightly behind him. "Lee I want you to just sit here and relax – I _will _come back to you, but first: Neji, Tenten, are you two ready to stand on water?" he asked loudly, clenching his fist in front of them and grinned like this was the day he had been waiting for his entire life.

Somehow, Neji just knew this lesson was going to be a pain in the ass.

* * *

**A/N:** I have to admitt that I'm not entirely satisfied with the way I wrote this. I feel like it is a bit messy, or something. It might be the fact that there is so little Neji-Tenten fluff that I get confused. I don't know. Please tell me what you think, and I'd love to get some improvement advices or something, 'cause I know this could get better.

I appologize for any spelling errors, and PLEASE REVIEW!


	13. Chapter 13 Hypothermia

**A/N:** Okay, this chapter took me a lot more time than I had expected, but here it is! :D Ehm, also I feel like my english isn't exactly great in this chapter. I don't know, it's just a feeling I have, so it'd be nice to know what you think of it ^^

Be prepared though, I use the word "cold" a lot in this chapter ^^"

* * *

**Chapter 13. Hypothermia**

Gai had just finished explaining quite shortly how the two genin were supposed to stand on the water surface without falling into the cold water. Neji, for once, was not annoyed by his sensei's choice of training for the day. This was something he _wanted _to learn. _Finally_ something useful came out of the past three crazy weeks.

"Now, I suggest you two help each other," Gai said, making sure to put a long, good stare at Neji, as if to shove the words into his brain. At this, Neji could not help but to feel a little annoyed. "You're both gonna spend a lot of time in the water, but there are rules. Neither of you can stay in the water for more than four minutes. I don't want any of _my students _to get a cramp during training, cos _that_ would be a waste of time!" Gai said loudly and laughed again.

Neji wondered what it was like to be so god damned happy all the time, and to be able to find something funny in _any _situation. He huffed out a long impatient breath and crossed his arms over his chest. Was he the only one who realized how much time they were wasting _right now_?

"Alright, let's give it a try, shall we?" Gai said, and grinned cockily at the two. Neji glanced over at Tenten, who stood further away. She gulped nervously, but looked determined to do it.

"Watch this kids!" Gai shouted as he shot to the air, like the show off he was born to be, and landed heavily on the water surface, and stayed there, making the water look solid under his feet. "Think you can handle it?" he asked cockily, his grin still intensifying.

Neji snorted. Of course he could do it. Looking at the calm lake in front of him he wondered how hard it could be. The green clad moron in front of him made it look so easy.

"Come on you two," Gai said, and motioned with his finger for them to step forth. Neji didn't hesitate. By the shore the water wasn't very deep, he would try it a few times there first. He stepped into the water, and walked until it reached his ankles. Chills ran down his entire spine as the ice cold water that now surrounded his feet struck his skin like needles. He grimaced, but forced himself to stay focused, and ignore the three faces that were watching him.

"Oh, crap," he muttered, as he was unable to keep his skin from shivering all over his body. It was constantly interrupting his abilities to concentrate. He had to ignore the thousands of needles that pushed against his skin under the cold surface.

"Tenten, what are you doing, just standing there?" Gai asked loudly, boring through Neji's concentration.

He squeezed his eyes shut as he focused chakra to his feet, clenching his teeth together to prevent them from chattering. _Focus, focus…_ he told himself as he shut the other's voices out of his ears. He lifted his left foot, ready to master the technique. It could not be that hard. He lowered it slowly, ready to stand on the slowly moving water under him.

His concentration was shattered into a thousand pieces when his foot splashed into the freezing cold water again in total failure. The ice cold water was once again surrounding his foot, the cold temperature making every cell in his body tremble. It made him feel annoyingly weak.

"HAHAHAHA!" Gai's booming laughter, quickly washed the disappointment off of Neji's face, and replaced it with pure annoyance. "You're in need of some serious motivation, Neji," Gai said and walked merrily towards him making the water under him look like solid ground.

Neji was about to take a step back when Gai reached out and grabbed him by the back of his jacket and lifted him up in the air. He yelped in surprised and instinctively tried to wrench his way out of his Sensei's death grip.

"Why do you think I brought you guys to this very lake, anyway?" he asked, rhetorically, and grinned blindingly. Neji gritted his teeth. This time Gai was seriously crossing the line.

"Gai Sensei, _put me down_," he demanded, feeling the beginning of embarrassment begin to form in his belly, which always led to anger in his case.

"I will put you down, Neji, and the only way you will get out of this lake is by mastering this technique! That better motivate you to give it your best shot!" with that said, he walked out to the middle of the lake, where it probably was deepest. Neji was glaring his eyes sore at the mad man that was _freaking_ carrying him like a naughty child the whole time, resisting the urge to rip his arm off.

"Are you ready for some _serious_ training?" Gai asked loudly, like he was announcing the beginning of the Chuunin Exams or something.

"Don't you fucking dare –" Neji started but was cut off as Gai released his death grip on Neji's jacket and tossed him into the freezing cold water making it splash in every direction.

The ice cold water pierced through Neji's clothes and reached his skin in the matter of seconds. One million needles was currently trying to pierce their way into the very core of his body.

The second his feet made contact with the rocks on the bottom, he used all the strength he could master with his stiffened muscles to push himself up towards the surface again. The air above the water felt extremely hot against his face as he resurfaced, taking in a deep breath.

"_I'm gonna kill him," _he thought grudgingly to himself as he spotted Gai's green spandex safely by the shore again, and judging by the sound of it, he was having the time of his life.

"Come on, Tenten! There is no better way to learn this!" he yelled and grabbed her by the back of her shirt, obviously planning to drop her into the lake the exact same way as he had done with Neji. Neji watched with chattering teeth as she did a brave attempt to save herself, but the effort was in vein. Gai was far to strong for her and after a few strides out on the water, she was tossed into the freezing hell right next to Neji, who instinctively reached out to yank her up to the surface again, half expecting her to fall into a shock.

"Oh my god!" she shrieked loudly as she reached the hot air above again. Neji held on to her arm, not sure if she was going to be okay or not. "Gah, that's cold! Oh, shit that's cold!" She kept on ranting about how cold it was for a while, her skin snow white and her lips slowly turning into a blue tone that looked far from healthy.

"If I were you I'd use a little less time adjusting to the water, and a little more time trying to get out of it," Gai yelled from the shore, where he was standing completely dry besides Lee, who was shouting "encouraging" words to them as best he could.

"And don't worry about the temperature, Tenten! They say girls are better armored to deal with the cold than boys!" He yelled, and winked at them.

Neji clenched his hands into stone hard fists under the water. "He's going down," he muttered to himself, unable to get the glare off of his face as his entire body shivered from the unbearable cold water.

* * *

Tenten didn't even dare to move. The fear of losing just the little control she had managed to gain over her chakra was far too enormous for her to be able to fight it down, even the slightest bit. She was painfully cold where she stood, hovering over the ice cold blue water she had just been fighting her way out of.

She panted heavily and shakily, with chattering teeth, and shivering skin. Not even the warm air could heat up her heatless body now. Her clothes and shoes were soaked, and now lay as a stone-cold, air-tight layer around her, making sure to keep her cool and frozen.

Gai had taken Lee for some special training after watching them try and fail a while. Now they had been gone for about an hour, and something told her they wouldn't be back in a while either.

"Tenten, we should get back to land now," Neji said, standing a few meters to her right. Tenten glanced at him, her lips parted, as she tried to calm her panting a little. She swallowed the ice-cube that currently was stuck in her throat, and nodded.

She was kind of glad to see that the ridiculously low temperature in the lake had taken its toll on him too. His skin was white, and his lips were blue. He had obvious goose bumps all over his body and his breath came out a little shaky.

She put her left foot forwards a little hesitantly, afraid that she would lose control and fall into the water again. It was far from tempting. Neji had already started walking towards the shore. He was far more confident in his steps than Tenten was. She felt like the now solid surface under her was fragile like glass, and if she was not careful it would shatter under her weight.

She forced herself to walk, and to only concentrate on her chakra. This was training. If she could go all the way to the shore now, she could truly say that she had mastered the technique. It was a motivating thought.

"Neji, wait," She called out shakily. She didn't know exactly why she wanted him to wait. Probably because she was so afraid of falling into the freezing water again. If he was besides her, then at least she knew that he would help her up again.

He halted, and turned to look at her, his jaws clenched together, probably to prevent his teeth from chattering.

"Something wrong?" he asked monotonously. Eying her up and down.

"Please, just wait," She groaned, and slowly stumbled towards him. She felt so weird, like her brain had frozen to a point were it no longer was connected to the rest of her body.

"Tenten, are you alright?" Neji asked. Tenten looked up to where she had last seen him, wondering why he sounded worried – something that surprised her, but he was nowhere in sight. Where had he gone? She blinked a little, wrapping her arms around her bare skin, looking around for her team mate.

"Tenten?" Neji said, sounding confused. Where was he anyway? "Over here," he said, a little louder, his voice coming closer. Tenten looked over to her left and spotted him, walking towards her, his hand reaching out for her. "Are you alright?" he asked again.

Tenten stared at him, unable to understand where he had come from. His voice was loud and clear, but still she felt like there was a wall between them that muffled his words.

"_What the hell is going on with me?" _she asked herself mentally, feeling alarmed by her slurred senses.

"I don't know," she answered shakily, her brown orbs moving from side to side in confusion trying hard to understand what was happening. She barely noticed Neji's hand wrapping tightly around her arm.

"Okay," Neji started, looking at her with a deep frown on his face. "Come on," he commanded, and pulled her along towards the shore. "I think you've got hypothermia," he mumbled loud enough for her to hear him.

She swallowed again, and struggled to keep up with him on her shaky feet. Even in her confused state, she wouldn't let herself lose focus. If she fell through the surface now she had totally failed herself, and that was not acceptable. Especially in front of Neji.

"Just sit down," he said, when they finally stumbled onto land. Tenten looked after him as he walked over to where Gai had left his back pack. She lowered herself to the ground, her fingers numb and inapplicable.

"So c-cold," she muttered to herself, feeling like her face had turned to ice.

"Here," Neji muttered, and soundlessly wrapped a blanket around her. Her head jerked up to look at him, unable to prevent her teeth from chattering anymore. He sat down besides her. It took her some time, but suddenly Tenten noticed a change on him.

She couldn't help but to stare at him in confusion. He had removed his jacket, shirt, pants and shoes. If she hadn't been so goddamned cold, she probably would have freaked out.

"You really should remove your clothes too," he said staring back at her shamelessly, while wrapping another blanket around himself. She blinked at him, not understanding why on earth he would ask her such a thing.

"_Why_?" Tenten finally pressed out of her blue lips, eying him suspiciously. She wrapped her fingers weakly around the blanket he had just dropped on her and pulled at it, feeling like she needed to cover herself.

"Your skin is completely white, your lips are blue, you're shaking like an earth quake and you are mentally confused, which all means that you are suffering from mild hypothermia," he said, like it was a matter of fact, all the while staring at her. "If you don't take your soaked clothes off, they'll prevent you from warming up again, and the hypothermia will get worse," he said and turned to face the lake again.

Tenten blinked and considered her options. She didn't want the hypothermia to get any worse than it already was, that was for sure, but…

"I won't look," Neji said, answering her unasked question. Tenten swallowed another ice cube and positioned herself so that her back was facing him – just in case.

"How do you know it's mild hypothermia?" She asked as she started unbuttoning her pink oriental shirt. She glanced over her shoulder, making sure he wasn't looking one last time before slipping the wet shirt off and tossing it to the side with the little

strength she could master.

"Because your skin isn't stone hard. If you can move your skin, it means that the hypothermia hasn't gotten too bad yet," he explained.

As Tenten struggled to slid her black pants off of her legs as discreetly as she could, she started wondering in half daze how Neji could know all these things. It was as if he knew a little bit about everything in the world.

When she had finally managed to get her shirt, pants and shoes off, she untied her forehead protector and laid it down on the ground besides her as she positioned herself besides Neji again, a good arms length away from him. She was still shaking, as she wrapped her numb fingers around the blanket, pulling at it so it would cover her better. She crossed her legs and bit her lip, in an attempt to heat up her face again.

They both fell silent then. Only the sound of Tenten's constant chattering teeth was heard. Now and then she would glance over at Neji, and feel the competitive side of her getting irritated by the fact that Neji was already about to warm up again, while she was still shaking her ass off.

"Neji, it's not working," she admitted, after a little while, when there still was no hint of heat in her. She glanced up at him awkwardly, and felt like a little, fussy kid. Neji looked down at her, gazing at her white fingertips that was currently holding on to the blanket. "I think Gai was wrong when he said that girls were better armored against the cold." She said, her breath coming out a little sharply.

"Okay, turn towards me," Neji said after a slight pause, and turned over so he was facing her completely. Tenten did as she was told, and turned to face him too. He let go of the blanket and allowed it to simply rest over his shoulders, not caring that Tenten now had a clear view to his half naked body.

She gulped, and blinked a little, trying very hard to focus on his face and nothing else. She was sure that no matter how cold she was, there was no way she could avoid blushing at this.

Neji held her eyes, and reached out to put his warmer hands on her ice cold cheeks. The touch felt good on her face. Tenten gazed up at his special eyes, not bothering to look away; his hands hid her blush anyway.

He broke her pleasant daze by suddenly slapping her cheeks four times. She jerked her head backwards, blinking at him in surprise.

"Ey, what was that for?" she asked, shakily.

"I'm trying to activate your bloodstream," he said bluntly. "Give me your hand," he said, and glanced down at the white fingertips sticking out from under the blanket. Tenten did as she was told, but made sure to hold on to the blanket with her other hand. There was no way she would expose herself like he was currently doing (then again, he had nothing to hide).

He took her stone-cold hand in between his warmer hands and rubbed her skin until warmth come flowing in around her bones again. It was a little painful after having been so cold for so long, but she welcomed it.

"You're other hand," Neji commanded, and she quickly exchanged hands, happy to have the same treatment once more.

"Feeling better?" he asked, eyeing her emotionlessly as he rubbed her hand in between his.

"Yeah, much better," she admitted. "Have you mastered that technique yet?" she suddenly asked, as the memory of his promise reentered her mind. The red little bruise from last time he had been holding her hand, had faded long ago, and she still didn't know what he had done.

"Not yet," he answered right away.

"Please, tell me about it," she asked, feeling like a kid again. Neji looked a little annoyed again, but somehow Tenten thought she could see a hint of amusement in his normally stoic features.

"Don't start again, Tenten," he said, with a low voice. "I'll tell you when I know that I can trust you." he smirked at her, making her spine feel like jelly.

Tenten was about to reply with a genius comment, but the distant calls and roaring of Gai and Lee distracted her.

"I think they're coming back," Neji sighed and let go of her hand, glancing over to where he had left his still soaked clothes, probably considering to put them back on again.

Tenten sighed and pulled her now warmer hand through the wet bangs that clung coldly to her face. Turning to look in the direction of their returning voices, she silently wondered to if the two of them always would interrupt the few moments she nearly got through to Neji, or if they would just stay away with their crazy training exercises in the coming time.

* * *

**A/N:**I like the chapter, but as I said, I think I can still improve my writing skills quite a bit. ^^"

Tell me what you think please :3


	14. Chapter 14 Meeting the Hokage

** A/N:** Hihi, while writing this chapter, I had to do some research. I felt so cool, googeling simply everything I didn't really know. For example; I had to read an entire article about the Third Hokage before I even cared to start writing about him. Now, there are a lot of small details in this chapter that I'm still not entirely sure about, but this is a fanfiction, and its not that big a deal anyway. Hopefully .. ^^"

And SORRY for the delay. Jeez, I'm hopeless! And the worst part is that this really isn't a very exciting chapter either --. Hopefully - if things go as I plan, the next chapter will be a little more interesting.

And thanks to everyone who have read, reviewed, or added this story to your favorites and alerts! You guys are great! :D

disclaimer: do not own.

* * *

**Chapter 14. Meeting the Hokage**

Team 9 had been suffering under Maito Gai's mad commands for a whole month now. Four weeks, thirty days, and now Tenten's body was close to a complete breakdown. She was currently taking a very hot bath, safely locked inside the bathroom at home.

Her parents were out, and wouldn't come back in a while, which left her alone for what seemed to be the first time in ages. She was always busy training these days, and now that she finally could enjoy some hours in complete solitude, she was not about to take it for granted.

The hot water felt calming and comforting around her sore body. White foam surrounded the water surface, hugging her skin lightly. Finally feeling content, she laid her head back against the cold, white edge of the bathing tub and sighing happily.

Earlier the same day she had felt like she'd have to stay in the bath the entire night to get rid of all the dirt on her body, but after an hour, she finally allowed herself out of the now lukewarm water.

The bed had never felt as good as it did that night – still, that is what she had been telling herself every night, all week. Tenten sat down on the soft madras, enjoying the feeling of fresh sheets. Laying down she closed her eyes and fell asleep without another thought.

* * *

"Ow… Oh, God," Tenten muttered groggily as she slowly opened her eyes, blinking so she could adjust to the bright daylight that streamed in from her window.

She had been thinking that her body was sore and numb yesterday – but now… she couldn't even describe it. Every muscle she had worked so hard on building this last month was currently hard as stone, and impossibly painful to move.

Scratch that – she could not move.

At all.

"Dad lied when he said training would get easier," she muttered as she felt herself sink lower and lower into the madras, whishing herself away from her rigid body. Then again, her father never knew a sensei like Maito Gai.

A knock on her door startled her from her painful misery. Her tired eyes shot open, and over towards the door. _What now?_ She thought, and managed to drag one arm up to push some of the messy brown locks out of her face.

"What?" She had clearly told her mother not to wake her in the morning, since she had the day off.

"Honey?" Kiras kind voice entered the room, as she pushed up the door, and looked questioningly at her half asleep daughter from across the room. "Didn't you say that you had the day off?"

"Yeah…" Tenten mumbled, almost certain that her precious day off was going to be ruined. With shaking muscles she lifted her hands to rub some sleep out of her eyes.

"Then why are Hyuga Neji and Rock Lee at the door, asking for you to join them?" She asked, leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed, probably wondering if Tenten had lied about the day off or something.

"Who's _what_?" Tenten exclaimed, and sat up abruptly. Her brown eyes shone with terror, as her currently dense brain processed what her mother had just told her. "What the hell are they doing here?"

Tenten tossed the sheets to the side and leaped out of her bed, grabbed a random pair of black pants, and pulled them on in a second. Kira frowned, and stared at her child all the while, looking confused.

"Were you supposed to train after all?" she asked, eying Tenten suspiciously.

"No! I was supposed to sleep, _all day_," Tenten explained shortly, with a hint of childish complaining in her voice, and stumbled past her mother on stiff legs.

As she made her way down the stairs, eyes directed at the hallway and the open door she was closing in on, she did a half hearted effort to make her hair look less messy, and pulled it all over her left shoulder.

Her mother was right. Neji and Lee both stood there, waiting for her. Lee grinned at her as she came to a halt in front of them, blinking in confusion, while Neji was standing with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He looked like he was about to burst in annoyance.

Tenten wondered if it was the disturbed day off that was bothering him, or the fact that he had spent time alone with Lee.

"Hi, guys. What's going on?" Tenten asked, looking first at Neji, who opened his eyes to look at her, and gave her a nod as a greeting. Once Lee opened his mouth; the lavender eyes were closed again, jaws clenching in annoyance.

"Good morning, Tenten!" Lee started merrily, giving her a thumbs up, something he had started doing after watching Gai doing it every time he said something. Literarily. "Gai Sensei came to me this morning and told me to gather the team, 'cause we _had_ to meet him by the Hokage Tower at nine!"

At first, all Tenten could get out of that sentence was how Lee could talk about "this morning" like it was hours ago, when it - in fact - still was very much morning. For some of them at least.

"The Hokage Tower?" she muttered, wondering if she had heard right. Could it be that they were finally to receive a mission?

"Yes," Lee confirmed, grinning even wider. "But we have to hurry! We're supposed to be there in fifteen minutes!" Lee exclaimed, clenching his fists in front of him.

If she hadn't been so extremely tired, Tenten would have been excited.

"Okay," she breathed, and dropped a tired gaze to the floor. "Give me a minute to get changed," she said, and without waiting for them to answer she closed the door and ran upstairs.

* * *

"What took you so long?" Neji's deep voice asked sourly, as Tenten closed the door behind her, a few minutes later. She guessed it was mostly the fact that he had spent even more unnecessary time alone with Lee that made him so grumpy.

"Sorry, Neji, I had to get decent," she replied with a roll of her eyes, and walked through the white porch to join them on the street.

"You didn't delay us too much, Tenten! But now we must hurry!" Lee wasn't very found of talking in any way that did not involve yelling nowadays. Tenten couldn't help but to smile at him – when did he get so enthusiastic anyway?

As the trio started walking, Tenten somehow ended up in the middle. She glanced suspiciously over at Neji, who currently acted like he had a stick shoved up his ass. She wondered what Lee had done to annoy him so much. Something told her he hadn't done anything out of the ordinary.

"At long last! You're finally here!" Gai's voice was impossible to not recognize.

Tenten couldn't help but to shudder at the sight in front of her as they walked up to the hokage tower. Gai were nearly jumping up and down in excitement, and would probably burst up in flames if they didn't get started with whatever he had planned for them soon.

"Sensei! Will you now tell us what's so urgent that it could not wait?" Lee asked loudly, his voice high pitched. The trio came to a halt in front of Gai, and all looked up at him, expectantly – except for Neji. He was only mildly curious.

"Yes! My dear students! Today is the day that you will – " he raised his hand dramatically towards the sky, grinning from ear to ear. "Be granted your very first MISSION!"

Tenten stared at the green clad man in front of her, waiting for the ringing in her ears to go away. It took a second, but as her still sleepy brain managed to process the information, she couldn't help but to be drawn into the same excitement that Lee was nearly choking on.

"Finally!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands together with a wide grin on her face. Lee's tremendously loud cry of joy totally drowned out the sound of her voice, though, but she didn't mind.

"I'm so proud of you!" Gai said, his voice suddenly sounding higher than normal. Tenten's grin morphed into a insecure frown, as the usually proud Jounin dropped his head and used his big hand to dry off some tears.

She had never thought that she would see a grown up Jounin cry tears of joy for something as little as this. It was pretty weird to watch, and for the five hundredth time since the birth of their team; she had to ask herself how he ended up as their sensei. She even doubted his ability to teach them anything sometimes. This was definitively one of those times.

"You've shed blood, sweat and tears under the merciless sun, and now the day has come to prove yourself!" He boomed, throwing his dramatic gaze up to the sky, and with that; the trio finally witnessed their very first pep talk from Maito Gai. "You will have to be brave! You will have to be smart! But most importantly! You will have to bring forth every little fiber of youthfulness that swims in your body, because there's NO task that can be solved without giving it your _tripled_ best shot!"

It was embarrassing how people around them stared at their sensei. Tenten glanced self consciously from side to side, wondering what they all were thinking. She wished she could do like Neji: just close her eyes and shut the world out completely.

"Do you understand me, students?"

Why did he always have to yell? People looked over their shoulders, and some even dropped what they were holding as Gai's voice suddenly thundered through the streets. Tenten almost thought she could hear some glass shattering in the distance.

"Yes, Gai Sensei! I understand every word!"

Lee was suddenly by Gai's right side, eyes staring up at him like he was some kind of god. Gai grinned proudly, enjoying the enthusiasm from his most recent fan.

Tenten could nearly feel a sweat drop run down the side of her face. What was up with those two? Was it natural for a sensei and a student to get this much along with each other?

"Can we _please _just get started, already?" Neji groaned from Tenten's right side. She could feel the wave of his breath on her cheek as he sighed impatiently. She eyed him, not sure if he was safe to stand next to at the moment.

"Very well! We shall climb the stairs, and reach the Hokage's office in no more than one minute!" He said, and spun around without any warning. "Ready, set, GO!" And then he was off.

The three remaining genin peered up at the gigantic tower. Why the hell did they have to climb the stairs within one minute anyway? It was impossible! Tenten Stared at the staircase that began safely on the ground in front of them, and stretched out in a spiral around the huge tower. Gai was already sprinting half way up to the first entrance, which he only seconds later disappeared into.

"Wait, Gai Sensei!" Lee yelled, and started running.

"Lee, you can't be serious!" Tenten exclaimed and gaped at him as he stopped to look back at them.

"Come on you guys! It's training!" Lee said, a look of determination on his face.

"Alright," Neji muttered. His voice was clear, but Tenten still couldn't believe what he was saying.

"But it's so stupid!" she protested, as he jogged off.

"No, Tenten! It's youthful _training!"_

"_Oh, my God. He's starting to talk like him too,"_ Tenten thought in horror, and grimaced as she surrendered to the pressure of not wanting to be left behind.

**

* * *

**

"Haha! Took you long enough!" Gai laughed as the three genin finally reached the hallway outside of the Hokage's office. They were all panting, but Lee's heavy breathing was loudest of them all. Even though Neji didn't want to admit it, Gai's training had improved his stamina quite dramatically.

Tenten wasn't panting too much anymore. Gai's training was improving her condition too, and quite unexpectedly; Lee was showing improvements as well.

Neji watched his two team mates from the corner of his eye. Tenten had almost caught her breath, she was surprisingly equal with Neji when it came to running and speed. Lee was panting a lot, but he hadn't given up at all while running, and he had kept a steady pace all the way up.

Deep down, Neji knew that he was impressed. He had believed that he would be the only one to show improvement, and to be able to stand their sensei's mad ways of training, but the two of them had proved him wrong. Of course, Neji was a master of masking his emotions, and the two of them would never know that he was aware of their good progress.

"Are you ready to see the Hokage now?" Gai asked, his voice nearly cracking with excitement. He was like a ten-year-old in a grown up man's body.

"Yes, Sensei!" Lee's voice was trembling, and his eyes were wide as dinner plates.

"Yes," Tenten said, her lips were pulled up in a smile. Neji knew she was excited, and he could tell by the way she was fiddling her fingers that she was a little nervous too.

"Yes," Neji grumbled, as Gai turned to look at him, silently demanding an answer.

"Good! _Prepare_!" Neji wondered if he would keep talking this loud, even inside the Hokage's office. He hoped and crossed his fingers that he wouldn't.

Gai opened the door and walked in with a proud grin on his face, motioning for the other three to follow him. Neji walked in first, calm and stoic as ever. The two other followed quietly.

The room was wide and just the way Neji remembered from the last time he had been there. The Hokage had invited him up to his office a few times to congratulate him with his progress, or to have a talk about his attitude during his time at the academy.

The Hokage sat behind what looked like a expensive desk, with a huge window, giving a great view over the entire village behind him. His name was Hiruzen Sarutobi. He was an old man, but respected as one of the greatest ninja's in the world. He was leaning back in his chair, with a wooden pipe in his mouth and dressed in the official kage uniform. A pile of papers were placed on the left side of his desk, and a cup of what smelled like coffee stood steaming right in front of his folded hands.

"Good morning, Hokage sama! I present to you; my wonderful three students!" Gai said, loud like always, _even_ in the presence of the Hokage.

Neji narrowed his brows, feeling embarrassed by his sensei, which wasn't exactly a first, but he remained silent.

Hiruzen, the Hokage, slipped his pipe out of his mouth, and wetted his lips before he finally answered Gai's question. A small smirk appeared on his old face, as he met Gai's excited grin.

"I am honored," he started with a deep and rusty voice, and took some time to eye each and one of them. Neji noticed how Tenten still was a little nervous. She swallowed nervously as Hiruzen looked her up and down, like she was afraid he wouldn't approve of her.

As the old man's knowing gaze landed on Neji, he put his pipe back in between his lips and stared right into the young boy's pale eyes. Neji stood tall, not feeling insecure in any way. He knew why the Hokage had a special interest in him. He was curious about Neji's future, and what would become of him.

What Neji didn't know was that Hiruzen knew far more about him than he assumed, and that his interest was based more on concern for his mental health after his father's death, than his physical strength.

"It's a fine team you have here," Hiruzen said after a short pause. "You've insisted on keeping them in training for far longer than the other Sensei's have. What is the reason to that?" He asked calmly and put his gaze back at Gai, who was grinning from ear to ear, with his hands proudly put on the hips of his green spandex.

"Well, Hokage-sama, I don't want my precious students to do the dirty work for some rich clients who are too lazy to do it themselves. These three are far too good for that. I knew it from the very first second I saw them that they are meant for something _great!_ And I will not insult them by having them chasing runaway kids and dogs through the village!" Gai said loudly, and stroke a pose to the Hokage, including a thumbsup and a massive, white grin.

"Gai Sensei..!" Lee muttered, his voice sounded half choked, like he was at the verge of tears. Neji turned to look at him, a look of disbelief covered his face.

"Shush, Lee!" Tenten hissed through gritted teeth. She was tense, and obviously embarrassed by the way Gai acted, and Lee didn't make it any better. Neji didn't blame her.

"I see," Hiruzen muttered, and took his pipe out and held it in his left hand as he picked up a sheet of paper from the pile on his desk. "This mission is not very high ranked, but I think it'll suit your students just perfectly," he said, quietly and held out the paper for Gai.

"A D-ranked, escort-mission, eh?" Gai muttered, as he took the sheet in his hands and read over it quickly.

"Yes," Hiruzen confirmed, leaning onto his elbows. "Abukara Mai and Riku are twin siblings. They have been visiting their aunt and uncle here in our village, and needs an escort to Border Town. Their parents want them back within two days, which should be manageable, since Border Town is not very far away from here," Hiruzen said, and put his pipe in his mouth again as he awaited Gai's response.

Neji stared at the Hokage the whole time, feeling a little excited about the mission. To finally get out of Konoha for a few days would be just perfect for him. A break from the daily routines, and the feeling of actually having a function in the society would be just what he needed.

"Yes, this is just perfect!" Gai said excitedly, and grinned up at the Hokage. "At top speed we'll probably reach Border Town by the end of _today_!"

Neji twitched, and gritted his teeth in annoyance. _How_ could a grown man believe that such a thing was possible, even without two civilians in the group? As he turned to glare at the green monster, he noticed that even Tenten had allowed herself to look away from the Hokage for the first time during their meeting, to stare horrified up at their sensei.

"Gai... I hope you do consider that your students only have been in training for a month, and that expecting them to be able to keep up with your… extreme ways of traveling might be a little hasty," Hiruzen said calmly, again folding his hands neatly in front of him. Just as Gai opened his big mouth, ready to point out exactly how great his students were, Hiruzen lifted his hand. "_And_ that you have two 7 year olds to take care of as well."

Neji sighed, inwardly crossing his fingers, hoping that Gai would _for once_ listen to reason.

"You might have a point," Gai said, deep in thought. He put his hand to his face and rubbed his chin, thinking very intensely. "I think we'll just have to take it slow, guys," he said, as a conclusion, and patted Lee's head as the boy sighed with a disappointed look on his face.

Neji noticed how Tenten whispered a _"Thank god" _to herself, and silently agreed with her.

"Good. Then I suggest you go home and prepare for the mission, while I'll arrange for their uncle to escort the twins to the village gates. Meet there at 11," he said, and leaned back in his chair, making it creak under his weight. "Dismissed."

* * *

**A/N: **Eh, I don't know what "Border Town" is, but I saw it on the map of the "Naruto world" and felt like using it ^^" I hope it's not a horrible place where no one lives or somthing. But if it is, let's just pretend it isn't.

I'd be soo happy if you care to tell me what you think, even though this kinda was a boring chapter. ^^"


	15. Chapter 15 Dranked Escort Mission

**A/N: **Eh, SORRY for the delay, but I struggled to get it right. I'm not sure if I'm completely happy with it yet, but it's ten pages long, so I hope you like it anyway x) And btw, Neji doesn't play a big role in this chapter, but that's because he'll play a bigger part in the next chapter : D

And THANK YOU so much for 100 reviews! :D That's just way cool!

And sorry, I had to upload it twice, because I forgot to put in some lines ^^"

disclaimer: I do not own.

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**Chapter 15. D-Ranked, escort mission. **

The sun was shining brightly, casting a yellowish, summer-like light over the village. It was eleven am, and Team 9 had all managed to meet by the village gates at the right time. Gai had examined the three genin's backpacks, and tossed aside all the things he saw as useless. Neji was the only one of them who had packed perfectly, but he didn't care to much about it. Especially not when Gai started patting his shoulder saying stuff like: "You are a quick learner, Neji! _Just like_ your sensei!"

Such a comparison should have been illegal, Neji thought, as he rubbed his now aching shoulder.

By now Gai was busy telling his three students how to act around the clients of their mission, with more enthusiasm than necessary, as usual.

Neji was not listening. What he was saying was completely basic, and the way he was talking was embarrassing and loud enough to make Neji's _brain_ hurt.

"We will walk in patience! The only thing that matters is that our clients are safe and happy!" Gai boomed, grinning proudly. "Just do like me, and you'll be fine!" He assured and pointed confidently at himself with his thumb.

Neji knew that acting like Gai was the last thing he would do on this mission.

_He can't be as great as he claims to be, _was the thought that played on repeat in the young prodigy's head. Neji refused to believe that a grown up man with a bowl cut, wearing a green jumpsuit out in public, could possibly know what he was doing.

Even though he was deadly annoyed at his sensei, Neji could not deny the fact that he was excited about the situation. He could feel his pulse going faster. He was eager to get started, but of course their unprofessional clients were late.

"Aaah!" Gai exclaimed as he took in a huge amount of air, as if tasting the summer. "Do you smell that kids?"

"No, Sensei! What is it?" Lee asked in confusion and sniffed the air. Neji sniffed too – very discreetly though – he couldn't smell anything.

"It's the smell of the beginning of your lives!" he boomed poetically, and clenched his hands into fists and closed his eyes in a moment of internal passion. "I am so proud to have brought you here!"

Neji frowned, blinked and turned away in annoyance. What was his_ deal_? As he turned, his eyes landed on Tenten who was standing besides him, an arms length away with fists placed firmly on her hips. She was currently staring very intensely at the ground, her lips pulled into an embarrassed line across her face.

Neji suddenly realized that he was beyond glad that she was on this team with him. He couldn't even imagine the horror of being left alone with Gai and Lee. Especially now that Lee had started acting like Gai was his biggest idol. Neji didn't know why, but Gai seemed to be very determined on training Lee as hard as possible. Personally, Neji couldn't understand why he wanted to waste time on Lee, the one and only kid in the village that couldn't even use ninjutsu, but then again, there were few things about his sensei that Neji did understand anyway.

Neji also knew that Lee had been training extra hard this last week. As far as he knew, Lee had barely left Gai's side, and the result of that was Lee starting to act more and more like their sensei, which wasn't necessarily an improvement. It bothered him that Lee was training even more than _he_ usually did now, and he wondered how long the guy would be able to keep it up.

"Ah, finally, they're here!" Said boy exclaimed and turned towards the village.

Neji followed Lee's gaze and spotted a grown up man, with a child on each side, both holding his hand. They were almost completely identical, except for the clothing.

"I'm guessing you are Maito Gai?" the man said in a smooth voice and stopped in front of them, looking directly at Gai, without even glancing at the younger trio. Neji closed his eyes in irritation, keeping his face indifferent. Adult people could be _so_ annoying.

He was dressed very formally, looking a little like a lawyer. His hair was dark, and combed backwards, shining with hair gel.

The children at his sides were unmistakably twins. They both had the same round shape of their heads, childish, big blue eyes, and curly blonde hair. The sister had somewhat longer hair than her brother, which was one of the main differences between them. Luckily, their clothes also separated the two. The girl was wearing a pink skirt and a white shirt under her jacket, while the boy wore jeans, with a single hole on the left knee.

"This is Riku and Mai," the man said, and motioned towards each kid with a slight nod of his head.

Neji noted that the man was acting like he thought of himself as the most important man in the world.

"I trust _you_ will take good care of them."

For the first time in his life Neji almost felt like laughing as Gai opened his big pie hole and answered the client like only he himself could. The look on Mr. Abukara's face was close to priceless.

"Well, of course they'll be okay, when they are put in the care of _my_ splendid students! I can assure you that Riku and Mai cannot travel any safer way than with OUR team! You see I have trained them well! I've trained them like I train myself, and as you see; I turned out pretty damned good!" Gai said and stroke a pose as the flow of words finally stopped, replaced by a roar of laughter and self satisfaction.

Mr. Abukara looked tense and alarmed. His shoulders and his back was stiff and his face pulled into a grimace of something close to horror.

Neji figured that there was two reasons to the look on the older man's face. One; he had been way to busy not looking at Tenten, Lee or Neji to realize exactly what their sensei was _wearing_, and two: he suddenly realized that the man who was assigned to lead the escort mission he had paid for was completely nuts.

A smirk did manage to creep its way across his stoic face, but it didn't last long as the girl named Mai started crying. Loudly.

"I don't want to go with them!" She cried with a high pitched voice that mercilessly sliced it's way through Neji's ears, almost making him flinch. He glared at the tears that ran down her face and at the wide open mouth and at the little fists that tightly clung to her uncles pants.

Mr. Abukara made an apologetic gesture – kind of, and tried to pull his leg away from her.

"Riku, talk to your sister," he said, a hint of embarrassment coloring his voice.

"We get to travel with real ninja's, Mai! It's gonna be cool," he said, in a very soft voice. "Don't cry, dumbass," he said and grinned at her. He took his sisters hand, so that their uncle was free to go.

Neji stared at the scenario as Gai and Mr. Abukara went over the details of the mission. Abukara was standing at a safe distance from the green clad beast, and said beast was talking like he was trying to reach someone on the other side of the village, but Neji skillfully blocked them out.

Lee was the first to take action to their new, young clients.

"Hello, there! My name is Rock Lee!" he exclaimed and got down at their level, grinning from ear to ear. "I bet we're gonna have lot's of fun!" he said, and formed a thumbs up, right in front of the crying girls face.

Neji stared at Lee's back, his face completely blank. Talking like that made him seem even more embarrassing than usual. But no matter how dumb Neji thought he was, Riku actually grinned up at the older boy, and seemed to think he was cool. Mai – on the other side – cried again.

"No, he's a _boy_!" she whined, and turned away from both her brother and Lee with her thin arms crossed. Her red face was glaring at something, but it didn't seem to exist for anyone but her.

Lee turned his face away from them, mouthing a silent cry for assistance towards the only female on the team. Neji stared at the scene, deadpan.

"Tenten," Neji said as he turned to look at her. Without another word he nodded towards the girl, pretty sure the message was clear. The brunette made a nervous face, like she didn't know what to say or do, but walked over to where the kids stood and bent down in front of the upset little brat anyway.

"Hi, there," Tenten tried softly at first and put her hands on her knees. Neji kept silent, knowing that he probably would freak Mai out with his eyes if he got her attention, and therefore he kept his distance. "My name is Tenten. What's yours?" she asked. Neji arched an eyebrow. She all ready knew the kid's name? Why ask for it?

"Mai," the blonde kid sniffled, and dried some of the tears on her sleeve.

"I don't like the boys either," Neji frowned. "Do you think you and I could be friends?" Tenten talked like she was afraid that her voice would break the little girls head if she talked too loud.

"Okay," was the silent reply.

"Alllrright! Kids! We are ready to go!" Gai said, shattering the silent moment, and leaped to the air.

* * *

It wasn't very hard for Tenten to befriend Mai. The girl was not very tall, and only reached up to Tenten's waist, but still she insisted on holding hands. At all times.

She obviously didn't like boys very much, and Tenten, being the only female on the team, was stuck with the shy and silent, _very_ slow walking girl.

A annoyed expression was glued to her face, which she had completely given up on hiding. What kind of a mission was this anyway?

In front of them, Lee was rambling on about their previous training sessions with Gai, impressing Riku with every word he said. The blonde boy walked sideways so he could look up at Lee all the while, his eyes shining with exuberance, white teeth shining in a wide grin. Lee was really committed to his storytelling, and nearly tripped over his own feet while demonstrating a special kick Gai had taught him last week.

Gai was humming a song for himself, not able to walk slow enough to stay in the group, and therefore Neji ended up in the lead and calmly led them after their speed devoted sensei. Tenten envied how he could walk so calmly and unbothered, while she was very nearly dragging Mai along.

Tenten blew some of her dark bangs out of her face and stared at Neji's back, hoping that _something _would happen soon, so she could feel a little less like a nanny, and a little more like a ninja.

This mission didn't exactly start off as she had expected.

"Good work today, students! Let's settle down!" Gai announced, and tossed his backpack down, so the ground nearly shook. Tenten stared at the back pack in horror, wondering what on earth he could have packed that was so heavy.

"Sensei, what do you have in there?" she asked, blinking.

"Ah, just some rocks I found on the way here," he said like it was the most normal thing in the world, and sat down on the ground, resting his back against a tree trunk.

The three students, and the two seven-year-olds stared at him, all blinking in silent confusion. Gai needed a few seconds to realize that an explanation would be needed, but as soon as his brain started progressing the situation; he jerked up in a standing position and put a finger in the air. His regular lecture-pose.

"Students!" he started dramatically. Tenten and Neji both flinched at his loud tone, while Lee fished up a notebook from the side pocket of his back pack, ready to scribble down anything his sensei was about to say. "Never let a chance of training slip away! If you are going on a journey, but cannot run, then you fill that back pack of yours with everything you see that's bigger than your own head, until you have reached your destination!"

"What..?" Tenten muttered, her mouth agape. That was ridiculous! "But what are about the trees? They're bigger than your head!"

"Tenten, Tenten…" Gai muttered, rubbing his chin, like he was deep in thought. "There is a limit to what a mere human being can do," he said, and put a fist to his chest. "That is a fact we all have to accept sooner or later!"

Tenten's left eyebrow jerked up, and a silent sigh escaped her lips. There was no way to reason with that man.

"Gai Sensei! Why haven't you told us this before! I would have done it on the way here!" Lee exclaimed helplessly, and stared at his role model in despair, still holding the notebook in front of him.

"_Lee_, it's just a waste of energy," Neji said, his voice sounding low and frustrated.

Tenten turned to look at him, almost surprised to hear his voice next to her. He hadn't said much during the day. His face was painted with the arrogance only he could master as he stared at Lee like he was the biggest loser ever.

"Neji! Replace that doubt with fifty laps around Konoha! It will serve you better!" Gai exclaimed, before Lee managed to say anything in his defense.

A tiny tug at her hand distracted her from the discussion, that probably would turn out pretty interesting. Tenten looked down at her warm hand, followed the smaller hand's arm, and landed on the big, round, worried, blue eyes that needed her attention.

"What, Mai?" she asked kindly, even though she was a little annoyed at the kid.

"Do you think he'll put me in the back pack?"

Tenten nearly laughed at the way her tiny voice was trembling, but managed to choke it all into a sweet grin.

She was about to assure her that Gai wouldn't do such a thing… but then she realized that he just might do such a thing. Him being the weirdest sensei she had ever met she didn't dare to totally exclude it from happening.

"Eh," she started with an unsure grin on her face. "Don't worry. I would never let that happen," she said. Adding a slight giggle at the end, she nearly sounded convincing. Mai remained worried, but (thankfully) she stayed silent.

* * *

As the sun disappeared behind the horizon, and the sky slowly started darkening towards night, Tenten had decided not to expect too much of the future missions. So far; all she had been doing was babysitting the difficult one of the twins, while Lee and Riku had become best friends, and Neji hadn't done or said much during the entire day, something that made Tenten strongly believe that he hated kids.

At the moment, they were all seated around the campfire, listening to Gai's thundering voice as he told them about his very first S-rank mission. It was probably the first time Gai had succeeded in gaining the attention of all his students at the same time.

The wood made creaking noises as the fire consumed it. The flames danced in front of them, casting a orange light on their features.

Tenten couldn't help herself as she glanced at Neji's stoic face a couple of times, just to remind herself how extremely handsome he actually was. The light from the fire didn't exactly make it easier to look away from him. If it hadn't been for Gai's disturbingly loud voice, she would have been completely lost in his eyes as the fire danced in them too.

Ignoring the butterflies in her stomach, she tore her eyes away from him, and forced herself to stay entirely focused on Gai.

"I don't know if you've heard of them, but I and three other jounin from Konoha, were sent to chase down a member of the _Akatsuki,"_ Gai said, eyeing each and one of them, awaiting their reactions.

Tenten's need to look at Neji, was quickly replaced by curiosity. Her smile dropped, and she stared at her sensei, her brown eyes shining in the light from the fire. She always loved learning new things about the ninja world, especially when it came to the bad guys.

"Gai Sensei, what is the Akatsuki?" Lee was the first to voice the question in everyone's head. His voice was, as usual, choking on eagerness to learn more.

Gai chuckled deeply, obviously pleased that he got another opportunity to tell them something they didn't know.

"The Akatsuki, my dear students, are a group of missing ninjas. We haven't yet found out what their intentions are – but they are not anyone you want to mess with!" he said, a hint of seriousness entered his voice at the last part. The glow from the fire gave his face a spooky look as he crossed his arms, preparing to finish his story.

"They are strong, powerful and dangerous. My first S-rank mission as a jounin was to track down a very specific member of this group. He had only recently joined them, and we hoped that he would be easier to crack if we'd be lucky enough to get him."

"Did you get him?" Riku's young, boyish voice spoke up from besides Mai, who still hadn't let go of Tenten's hand (Tenten's finger were starting to ache, but she was unable to pull away from seven-year-old's death grip). His little hands were balled up in fists on his lap, and his eyes were almost as round as Lee's as he stared up at the older ninja.

Gai's face lost some of its spark, and a wave of bitterness washed over his features. It was a pretty unusual sight, Tenten thought, as the story took a much more interesting turn.

"We were close. There were four of us, and only one of him, but still he managed to fight us for quite some time. As we were almost certain that we had him, an other member of the Akatsuki came out of no where and killed him without even a warning."

"Sensei!" Tenten hissed as Mai squeezed her numb hand, and made a weird sound as she scooted even closer to Tenten.

Gai shoot her an apologetic glance and laughed it off, as a long "wooow" slipped from Riku's lips. It was pretty obvious that the boy wanted to be a ninja when he was older. He had that same spark in the eye that most of the boys in Konoha used to have in the early days at the Academy.

Sending one last annoyed look at her sensei Tenten put one arm around Mai's shoulders and turned to look down at her.

"He's just joking. He's got a really weird sense of humor. Don't ever listen to him," she said soothingly, begging all the powers in the universe that she would listen, and calm down.

"Okay," she mutter, her thin voice sounded a little hoarse.

Tenten was revealed to feel her back relax against her arm, and let out a breathe she didn't know she had been holding.

"Well, I think it's time for everyone under the age of twelve to go to sleep!" Gai announced and threw a few more branches at the fire. "I'll tell you more of the Akatsuki some other time," he said, blinking at Lee, who's disappointment was quickly replaced by a huge grin.

"Not yet! How can you tell?" Riku protested, sitting up on his knees ready to fight. Mai didn't say anything.

"I can _smell_ it!" Gai said, and chuckled.

"Huh? That's not possible!"

"Riku kun! Don't ever question Gai Sensei!" Lee scolded, from Gai's other side, a look of insult on his face. Tenten grinned, but tried to keep it to herself. Lee looked up to Gai sensei so much that it was starting to get comical.

* * *

An hour later both Riku and Mai had fallen asleep next to each other, both safe and warm inside their sleeping bags. Gai was keeping the fire lit, while he went through the rules of the night.

"I will take the first watch, Neji takes the second, Tenten takes the third, and Lee takes the last. Is that alright with everyone?"

"Yes," the three genin said at the same time.

"If anything happens during your watch, you _will_ wake me up, and we'll take care of whatever it is together," Gai instructed. "And most importantly! Keep the fire _alive!_"

As the instructions were said and received, they all rolled out their sleeping bags and settled down for the night.

Tenten put her hands behind her head and stared up at the stars between the treetops. It was great to be out on a mission at last, even though the it didn't meet her expectations. She smiled to herself as she listened to the sound of the fire, and her team mates steady breathing.

If only something exciting could happen…

* * *

"Tenten," a delicate, deep voice broke through her sleep and made her blink until her eyes had adjusted.

Neji was kneeling in front of her, pulling his hand back from her shoulder. Tenten swallowed, and sleepily dragged herself up in a sitting position. She immediately remembered where she was, and that it was her shift.

"Hey," she mumbled as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

Neji sat down on his sleeping bag, a meter away from her, and pulled the zipper up. He was trying to be stoic about it, but Tenten could see that he was tired.

"Did anything happen?" she asked carefully, afraid he would be grumpy or something.

"No," was the simple reply.

Tenten took the hint and unzipped her sleeping bag to sit on top of it instead. If she stayed inside it, the warmth would lull her to sleep in a matter of minutes, and she would absolutely not fall asleep on her very first watch.

The sun was completely gone now, and the sky was covered in clouds, keeping the stars and the moon away. It was very dark to say the least. Thankfully, the campfire was still burning fiercely, steadily producing warmth and light.

The first ten minutes passed by quickly. Tenten couldn't stop herself from looking over at Neji's form as he slowly fell asleep. She didn't turn fully towards him, but watched him from the corner of her eye, so he wouldn't notice. He had his back turned towards her, so it wasn't as exciting as it could have been, but it still felt calming to her to watch him.

It hit her that her crush on him had yet to fade completely.

She spent most of her time just watching the hot flames dance in front of her. She felt extremely restless, and shifted her sitting position frequently, just to have something to do. _This _was certainly something she would have to get used to.

Even though she was bored and restless, she learned a lot about her team mates while watching them sleep.

Neji slept completely still. He barely moved as he breathed, and he made no sounds what so ever. No snoring, or mumbling or anything. As usual, he was perfect.

Lee, on the other hand, moved a lot. At one point he even started kicking inside his sleeping bag, with a strange expression on his sleeping face. Tenten nearly threw something at him to make him stop, but just when she reached for her pillow, he calmed down and fell asleep again, mumbling something incoherent.

Gai was just the same asleep as he was awake. He was breathing very heavy and quickly. By the sound of it, Tenten guessed he was dreaming of running. _Shock_. Occasionally he started snoring, but it wasn't loud (thank god), but it was a little annoying. After no more than a minute he would stop snoring, and start mumbling something instead. After a few seconds he would fall silent, and the only sound of him was his breathing.

Tenten smiled to herself and rested her back against the tree behind her. She buried her feet under her sleeping bag, and continued to stare into the fire. Riku was talking a little in his sleep, while Mai was dead silent.

The brunette smiled to herself as the peace and quiet finally allowed her to simply relax. She let out a content sigh and crossed her arms over her chest, keeping her bare skin warm.

But it wasn't all good.

Her smile soon mixed into a frown.

There was a feeling in her belly that made her feel uneasy. Something about the situation was changed, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

She glanced over at her sleeping comrades, looking alarmed.

Lee was sleeping. Neji was sleeping. Gai was snoring again. Riku and Mai were sound asleep, their round faces looking completely peaceful.

Everything was like before, but something was different. She could sense it.

She moved away from the tree and moved to sit on her knees in stead. She looked over her shoulders and tried to see anything in the dark between the trees, but she couldn't see anything. The fire only lit up a few meters into the forest.

Her heart started beating faster. Something was happening, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

Then she it hit her.

She was sensing the presence of a stranger.

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**A/N:** Omg... hope this wasn't too dull. And did you guys notice my cliffhanger? :D agh, I hope this was more interesting than the last chapter. I promise that the next will be cooler though: ) leave a review, please? : D


	16. Chapter 16 Genius Zone

**A/N: **Well.. it's summer! : D I'm sorry about the delay, but I've been busy doing summer stuff :D Partying with friends because school is finally over!

: D But anyway! Here I am, with a new chapter, which I've been working very hard with, and now, after rewriting it two times, I'm finally satisfied. Hope you guys like it! And oh! Thank's to everyone who's been reading and revewing this story. I think last chapter broke the "reveiw-record" from last time : D Yeah, I'm a review-addict.

**Disclaimer: I don't own this stuff : P**

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**Chapter 16. Genius Zone **

The once cozy setting of Team 9's camp, with dancing flames, and sleeping team mates was suddenly no more than a faint comfort in the eternal darkness of the night. Even the moon was trapped behind thick clouds, leaving no natural light whatsoever. With a stranger moving between the trees, safely hidden in the shadows, there was no telling what was going to happen.

One hundred ideas of who was out there ran through Tenten's head as she warily looked over her shoulder and behind the tree she was leant up against. She couldn't see anything but a few feet of ground, before the shadows devoured the forest completely.

Quickly she drew back to rest her back against the tree, struggling a little to keep her cool. She didn't want whoever that was out there to know that she was nervous. With a slightly shaky hand she adjusted her forehead protector, reminding herself that she was a _ninja_ now.

She needed a plan. Fast.

Gai had told them to wake him up if anything happened, but in order to wake him, she would have to move over to the other side of the campfire, which left her back exposed. Someone could easily stab her from behind if she wasn't looking – which wasn't a very appealing idea. It actually made her heart beat uncomfortably fast.

On her right, Neji lay sound asleep in his sleeping bag, his face turned away from her. For a once he looked kind of peaceful.

While constantly reminding herself not to freak out too much, she leaned over, and stretched her arm out as far as she could, until she reached his shoulder. She poked him as hard as she could, and sat up as fast as possible, worriedly glancing over her shoulders.

He stirred a little at first, but soon his eyes flickered open, sliding over to meet her stressed out face. He frowned at her expression, and propped himself up on his elbows.

"What's going on?" he asked, sounding a little confused.

His voice calmed her down a little. She blew some dark strands of hair out of her face, and swallowed to steady her voice.

"I think there's someone out in the forest," she whispered, putting a finger to her lips, signaling for him to keep his voice low.

Not only didn't she want the stranger to hear what they were talking about, Tenten could only imagine what kind of racket Mai would make if she woke up and found out about the potential danger in the forest.

"Close?" Neji asked, even though he probably knew Tenten didn't have such skills yet.

"I don't know," she admitted, looking over her shoulder another time – just to check if she could see anything.

"Hn," he muttered, and sat up properly.

Tenten watched him pull his legs out of the sleeping bag, and crossing them. He was going into his genius zone, so she just kept silent, and made sure to keep herself as calm as she could.

Neji closed his eyes and relaxed into his meditation position. Tenten made sure to keep her back firmly against the tree all the time, while she waited for him to say something. She watched him in his concentration. His face was flawless, even when he had just woken up. Even his hair was pretty, even though he had been sleeping for hours.

"Whoever it is, he's circling us," Neji suddenly said, opening his eyes to see her reaction.

Tenten swallowed the yelp that was about to break out. _Keep. It. Cool. _She constantly reminded herself. She would absolutely not freak out in front of Neji on their first mission. Not even when some crazy, murderous ninja was circling their camp, looking for the best angle to strike from.

She shuddered at the thought, but then an idea hit her.

"Neji, can't you just use that technique?" she asked quietly, eying him carefully.

When he used it last time, he got so annoyed when she and Lee asked about it. A little voice in her head told her not to go there, but her curiosity always seemed to get the better of her.

"The byakugan," he muttered, staring into the darkness behind Gai's sleeping form.

_Crack!_

Both their heads snapped to the left, as the sound of a breaking branch (or something similar) broke the silence in the dark. Tenten couldn't make the worry go away from her face, she was simply to afraid of whom might be out there, and what the hell he or she, _or it_, wanted.

"Please, Neji," she almost begged, and turned to look at him again. Why was he so wavering in using it? Wasn't it something all Hyuga's could use?

Even in such a stressing situation, Tenten started wondering if it was a difficult technique, and what it was like. She'd have to ask him about it later.

More sounds were heard from the darkness now. Steps on the grassy ground, moving bushes and other proof of that someone was out there, and whoever that was, he was coming closer.

"Okay," he finally gave in.

Tenten nearly cheered, but kept her mouth wisely shut. Neji lifted his hands in front of him and did a well practiced hand sign. Tenten watched in concentration, intending to grasp everything he did as he activated the technique. Unfortunately, it seemed impossibly simple.

"Byakugan," he muttered, and with that, his flawless face was interrupted by thick, pulsing veins that led to his eyes.

In the orange light from the fire, he now looked more demonic than angelic, and Tenten had no idea whether she was amazed or just horrified at how strange he suddenly looked. He was still far too beautiful to be called ugly, but for someone who used to be speechless in his presence, it was quite the shock to see him like this.

His brows were pulled into a deep frown as he stared out in the darkness. Tenten tried to follow his gaze, but she didn't even have a chance at spotting something out there.

"It's an animal," he finally said, his voice slicing the thick silence delicately.

Tenten quickly turned her head to face him again, a surprised look on her face.  
"An animal?" She felt incredibly stupid for making such a fuss about an animal… What kind of a ninja was she, anyway? _Embarrassing!_

"It's a cougar," he said, and followed it in the darkness with his all seeing eyes as he just stared at some point in the darkness, not moving his head or eyes even an inch. "It's probably hungry, or else it wouldn't have come down from the mountain."

Tenten frowned. Maybe it wasn't such an anticlimax anyway. A hungry, desperate cougar could put them in pretty much danger too. On reflex she slid her hand into the weapon holster she had strapped around her thigh. She wrapped her fingers around the cool handle of the first kunai she could reach, ready to pull it any time needed.

"We can try to scare it away," Neji said, still staring at that point in the darkness. "When I say "now", you throw that kunai you're holding at 80 degrees, just to scare it away. Okay?" his voice was low and monotonous. Tenten didn't need to think about the seriousness of the situation.

The fact that Neji knew that she was holding a kunai just proved that he really could see everything with those eyes. Tenten stared at him in amazement.

"Stare right ahead of you, and imagine that the tree right behind Lee is 90 degrees, and calculate your target from that starting point," he said, making it sound easy.

Even though she was a little shaky, Tenten knew how to throw a kunai. She pulled the kunai up and held it in front of her, finally feeling some confidence in her self. She quickly calculated her 80 degrees, and was ready to throw the kunai, whenever Neji would say the word.

After a long silence, Tenten was starting to lose her patience. The sharp, silver colored weapon in her hand was ready, her muscles were tense and prepared for action, but the waiting was starting to get a little long.

"What's taking it so long?" she blurted out. For a quick second she looked away from her imaginary target to glance over at Neji, who _still_ were staring at the same spot.

"Don't lose your focus," Neji nearly barked at her.

She snapped back to her previous position, biting down on her lip to prevent herself from losing her focus again.

Another long silence followed. It was so quiet that the sounds of the cougars steps became audible, making shrills go down Tenten's already tense spine.

"Now," Neji ordered in a low voice.

Tenten's arm moved almost without her noticing, in the familiar movement her father had taught her years ago. The kunai sliced through the air, and in just a heartbeat it had hit a tree, sending a confirming sound back to their camp. A surprised, cat-like hiss, followed by quick footsteps made Tenten reach for more kunai's instantly.

"Throw a few more. Same direction," Neji said, byakugan still activated.

Tenten did as she was told, and threw three more kunai's forcefully through the air, and watched them disappear in the darkness. Another hiss, and the sound of branches, rocks and bushes gave her the impression that the cougar was running away, but she didn't dare to let her guard down just yet.

"It's okay," Neji breathed. "It ran away."

Tenten turned to look at him, about to say something when he sank forward, looking like he was about to puke.

"Neji? Are you okay?" she asked hurriedly, and was about to move over to his side when he held up a hand to stop her.

"I'm fine. Just give me a second," he explained and put both his hands on his face and rubbed his eyes violently.

Tenten stared at him, worried that something was wrong, or that he was in pain. With a long sigh, he sat up properly and slowly opened his eyes again. Tenten noticed that the huge, throbbing veins were gone, and his face was back to its stunning perfection.

"Are you okay?" she asked again, softer this time. She leaned a little forward, trying to get a better look at him. He looked a little sick.

"It's nothing serious. I always get a bad head ache after using the byakugan," he explained.

"You look really sick," Tenten pointed out, determined not to let this opportunity to get some information out of him slip away.

"I get sick when I use it for such a long time," he said, glancing at her, before putting his lavender eyes back at the flames. "Weren't you supposed to keep it "alive"?" he asked, monotonously, staring at the campfire in front of him.

Tenten jumped up on her knees, realizing that she had forgotten all about the campfire, and grabbed a few branches from the huge pile of wood Gai and Lee had collected earlier, and threw it onto the fire. With a new wave of warmth, the fire grew a few sizes taller, like it had been reloaded.

"What is it like?" she asked softly, as she sat back down. She eyed him carefully, afraid that she was crossing a line.

Neji didn't answer at first. In fact he didn't even look at her, in some time. "The byakugan is pretty complex…" he started, lifting his eyes to meet her curious gaze.

The fire really did something astonishing to his eyes, Tenten thought as she waited for him to continue.

"I don't think I can explain it properly. But it's like seeing everything at once," he said, his voice low and silent.

"How much can you see?" she asked without thinking.

"Hn," Neji smirked at her, like he found her curiosity amusing. Tenten almost blushed, feeling like a little fan girl. "Nearly 360 degrees around myself, everything within an area of 50 meters and… I can see through solid objects," he said, awaiting the reaction he _knew_ was coming.

"Eh…" Tenten froze completely. The curiosity and amazement was drained from her eyes and she simply stared at him in slight shock. "_Through..?" _

He just stared at her; the tiny smirk still visible on is delicate lips. Tenten could feel a nervous lump in her throat. Neji wasn't a pervert, she was pretty sure about that. He wouldn't use his special ability to… No. Impossible.

No matter how hard she tried to convince herself, she couldn't help but to blush. Suddenly she felt like she needed to punch him. Really hard.

"I wouldn't do that, Tenten," he suddenly said, stopping her train of thoughts. Lucky for him, 'cause if he'd kept staring at her like that she definitely would have punched him.

"But can you?" she asked, forcing her voice to stay steady.

"Yes."

"But you can… like, control it, right?" she had to make sure.

"Yes," he said, the smirk widening a little at her struggle for words.

"Just wanted to make sure," she mumbled and looked away from him, embarrassed by her still blushing cheeks. She hoped he hadn't noticed, but by the looks of it, she guessed that he had.

"I better go to sleep now," Neji said, after a moment of silence. He slid back into his sleeping bag, and pulled up the zipper.

Tenten didn't watch him as he lay down and rolled over to the side, face turned away from her. She found it best to hide her blushing face a little while longer.

"Neji, are you sure the cougar is gone?" she asked quietly, and glanced over her shoulders, just to check. She still couldn't see anything though.

"Yes. You did a good job, but your aim was a little off," he said, his voice muffled by the sleeping bag.

"_What?_" she nearly hissed. Her hands that had been resting on her thighs were now balling up into fists of annoyance.

"Your first kunai hit 23 degrees off, and nearly hit the cougar. That could have pissed it off, you know," he said, like it was a matter of fact, but without rolling over to face her.

How could he be so _rude?_ She glared at his back. She had never been so insulted so quickly before in her life. She was completely speechless.

"Why do you always just point out everyone's flaws and imperfections? Don't you understand how rude you are?" she hissed, through gritted teeth. She felt her entire body tensing up, like she was preparing for a fight.

"The only reason you're reacting like this is because you know I'm right. Now, please quiet down, I need to sleep in order to get rid of this head ache," he said, monotonously.

"Neji, you –"

"We'll take care of it when we get home, Tenten," he said. Something in his tone made her feel like this was final.

The brunette crossed her arms over her chest and directed her pissed off glare at the fire in front of her. The worst part was that she knew why she had missed the target. It was because she had lost focus while waiting for Neji's signal. Because of carelessness. She nearly groaned out loud.

After a few minutes in silence, she managed to calm down. She stared quietly into the dancing flames in front of her, and once again the camp was a safe and cozy place, where she could relax while watching her team mates and clients sleep.

Neji's steady breathing reminded her of how lucky she was that he was there, and helped her without questioning her judging ability at all. And how happy she was that he had actually shared some of his secrets with her, even though she still wanted to know more about the byakugan.

He had been great tonight. Almost none rudeness. (..!)

With a sway of her head she put her gaze on his back again, a slight smile forming on her lips. No, she was definitely not crushing on him anymore.

"Good night, Neji," she whispered, sincerely. Her watch was still far from over, and somehow she didn't mind it. She wasn't tired, and watching Neji as he was asleep and had no idea that she was staring wasn't exactly a boring situation.

"Night, Tenten."

_Wops. _And there she was reunited with her dark blush.

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**A/N: **lol, a cougar. Ah, I couldn't come up with anything better. i concidered a bear, but something tells me that bears aren't really good at lurking soundlessly around in the dark. haha. And I could have come up with something lamer than a cougar... like a dinosaur x)

I am soooo tired right now, but as always, I'll be waiting for your reviews, you wonderful people that read this story! :D

_And I hope this wasn't too lame.. I don't know anything about mountain lions, so just consider it pure fiction. I don't claim to know anything about those animals and their hunting ways ^^" _


	17. Chapter 17 Update

A/N: I'm not even gonna say anything. Except maybe, HI! This is short, done on a whim of guilt and a sudden rebirth of interest. I don't know if anyone is still out there, but for those who might be reading; I'm back.

Hereby disclaimed.

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**Chapter 17. Update**

The morning came too quickly. Tenten had fallen asleep the second Lee had regained consciousness, and was somewhat ready to take his watch. She was currently trying to pack her stuff together as quickly as possible, without letting anyone catch her yawning every third and a half second.

«You are supposed to sleep when it's not your watch,» Neji said. Tenten looked up and was surprised to find him kneeling right in front of her, helping her packing up her things.

«I slept,» she said.

«Then why do you move like a dying turtle?»

«Meh,» was all she could muster.

He was looking perfectly well rested, and his brain seemed to be working just as perfectly as anything else worked on him. Tenten ended up sitting back, while he shut her back pack for her. If she had been even just remotely awake, she would have caught him sending her a humored smirk.

«TENTEN! LOOK ALIVE!» Gai roared and picked her up. He shook her like a maraca until she practically begged for her life.

«I am alive! Please, stop!» Gai put her down again, his booming laughter sending shockwaves into the woods. As she sunk down on the ground, she still felt like she was shaking. She met Neji's steady gaze with an exasperated look of her own, and grabbed her finished backpack.

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After the previous night's adventures with the cougar, Tenten was now ready to face anything. At least that was what she told herself before she fell asleep last night. Right now she was out on a mission, as a _ninja_, babysitting the notorious, 7 year old, Mai from the deepest cracks of hell and beyond. She was not really notorious, and she was not _really _that bad either, but she had a splinter in her right thumb, and therefore could not walk on her own. Of course Tenten was the only one qualified to carry her as the others were boys, and _her _hairstyle provided the perfect handles for Mai to hold on to.

«_Please, _don't lean back so much when you're holding onto my _hair_, Mai,» Tenten hissed.

«But there's a rainbow!»

Tenten groaned.

«Think positively, Tenten! You're scalp is getting stronger each time she pulls at your hair!» Lee said and gave her a strangely familiar thumbs up.

«That's good, in case some rouge ninja I fight in the near future tries to pull my hair,» she could not help rolling her eyes. She looked at Lee for a moment, realizing that he was bouncing in his steps. «Lee, you know that you are rapidly turning _in to _Gai Sensei, right?»

«Can you blame me? He is so inspiring! Just look at him way up there!»

«I can't see him,» no one could see him, because he was constantly covered in a thick cloud of dust.

«He is so full of power and youthfulness and knowledge! Speaking of which!» Lee dashed off into the woods and disappeared. Riku was about to follow him into the woods, but Tenten grabbed his shirt and hauled him back on the road.

«It's best to let Lee act on his strange whims on his own, Riku,» she said with a smile, trying to reassure the boy that his hero was coming back.

«Where did Lee go?» Neji asked from the front of the group.

«He thought of Gai Sensei's knowledge, and dashed into the woods,» Tenten explained, and could not help a soft laugh to escape her lips.

«Right,» Neji sighed and squinted in between the trees to try and spot their white clad friend. «Do you think that he is getting more and more alike Gai?»

«Yeah. It worries me,» Neji frowned at her. She read his face and decided that he was a little worried too. One Maito Gai was already way more than the world could handle, if Lee turned into the sequel, who knew what would happen?

«Yes! I feel so youthful!» Lee exclaimed as he emerged from the bushes and joined them on the road.

«Lee! Where did you go?» Riku asked and balled his hands up into fists with anticipation.

«I did as Gai Sensei told us yesterday! I filled my backpack with things that are bigger than my head,» he grinned from ear to ear. He was so proud of himself, but walked like an old man. The weight of the back pack forced him to haunch forward, and his legs shook like guitar strings under him. Tenten wondered if this was better than having him skipping up and down besides her all the way to Border Town;

«HNNGH!» Lee groaned as he forced himself up in the air again.

She decided no.

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Neji was nearly driven crazy by Lee's unstoppable groaning. The sound of the rocks grinding together in his backpack, combined with his eternal groaning every time he tried to jump; yet again combined with Mai's singing and Riku's nonstop talking, was just too much. It took absolutely all the willpower he could possibly work up, but in the end, it could just might be worth it.

«Gai Sensei!» he called after the lunatic in the dust cloud way ahead of them. It took approximately two seconds before he was back in the group.

«What is it, dear student! An ambush, a demon, a -«

«I'm just wondering,» Neji wisely cut him off. «If you don't have any training planned for us today?» He could hear Tenten gasp sharply behind him. She probably thought of this as the ultimate betrayal. Gai on the other hand was so taken aback by this willingness to train by his own standards, that he was, for once, speechless. «It's seems crazy to have gone nearly twenty-four hours without shedding blood and sweat.»

Neji did not recognize himself anymore. This could lead to a serious identity crisis for him, but that he would deal with later, right now he needed to escape Lee's foolishness, with the additional annoyance that came with two kids.

«Neji!» Gai boomed with tears in his eyes. He stopped, and spread his arms out, ready to embrace Neji in a hug. Neji had not seen this coming. He was lifted up from the ground and locked into human chains, as Gai nearly cried into his hair. «I _knew_ this day would come! You have finally put our differences aside and decided to follow your _master_! Oh, what a glorious day!»

Gai put him down and took a minute to regain his posture. Neji took a minute to look at Tenten, who could not decide whether to glare at him, or laugh. Which ended up in a very strange expression. He noted that Mai had stopped her singing, and that Riku had finally quieted down. He then looked at Lee, who already had fished up his notebook, ready to take notes of whatever Gai was about to utter.

«Very well, students! Today, as we travel on, you will learn how to walk up trees!»

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Yeah... I don't know if I've still got the hang of this.


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